Last summer, then-Denver Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox was accused of impregnating his rape victim. In March, he was found not guilty of the charge. But while he had been cut by the Broncos beforehand, the current-San Francisco 49er isn't done with Colorado.
Cox's alleged victim has filed a Jane Doe lawsuit against him, alleging sexual assault and much more. Read it below.
When asked for an interview about the suit, Craig Silverman, Doe's attorney (as well as a KHOW talk-show host), wrote via e-mail that the document should speak for itself, and it's certainly got a lot to say. Although the document doesn't explicitly accuse Cox and roommate Demaryius Thomas -- a Broncos wide receiver who's become a favorite target of QB Peyton Manning during organized team activities, or OTAs -- of giving date-rate drugs to Doe and another woman, referred to throughout as "Ms. Smith," the implication is impossible to ignore.
On September 5, 2010, according to the narrative, Doe, Smith and several other women gathered at a friend's home to prepare for an evening of revelry at Club Beta, the locale of a Labor Day weekend event called "White Party." They recall having one drink apiece before being driven to the bash, and a small number more over the course of several hours, before connecting with Cox and Thomas and being invited to a private VIP area at the club for "bottle service."
There, the suit claims that they were surprised when presented with lemon-drop shots, which Cox and Thomas urged them to down. Doe, who's said to have been "deliberately limiting her alcohol consumption because she had a modeling shoot out of state the following work week and wanted to minimize any excess weight or bloating," nonetheless concurred -- and shortly thereafter, both of them became "incapacitated" despite having glugged too little booze to have left them in that condition, the complaint maintains.
Doe is said to have been so disoriented after the lemon drop that she walked away from her group and was found "wandering the streets of lower downtown Denver" by Cox and Thomas. As for Smith, who also caught a ride with the players, she reportedly has no memory of anything between being at the club and vomiting in Cox's bathroom. The suit claims these symptoms are consistent with the consumption of "date rape drugs" such as GHB, "a drug of choice and easily obtained by NFL athletes," the suit allows.
Back at Cox's place, Doe remembers kissing and being genitally fondled by Thomas on an air mattress he used as a crash pad before passing out. Thomas confirmed that she lost consciousness during "sexual contact" during a conversation with police, the suit argues. But on the stand at Cox's trial, he changed his tune to assert that he had stopped his actions because he was a gentleman and the air mattress and circumstances weren't sufficiently romantic.
An unconscious Doe was allegedly transferred from the air mattress to Cox's bedroom, with Thomas testifying that he'd told Cox she was "ready" -- for intercourse with the latter, presumably. Due to this statement and Doe's condition, among other things, the suit states that Thomas should be held partly responsible for what happened next. "In the early morning hours of September 6, 2010," the document says, "one or more men ejaculated into the vagina of Doe, who was physically incapacitated and unconscious."
Page down to continue reading about the accusations against Cox and Thomas, including the complete lawsuit. The next day, Doe says Cox and another Broncos player, Cassius Vaughn (he's since been traded to the Indianapolis Colts) repeatedly encouraged her and Smith to take showers, which they found odd -- a reaction that seems in keeping with the argument that the sex act with Doe was non-consensual.
Then, about six weeks later, Doe and Thomas joined Smith and Cox on a double date -- and when Doe declined offers of alcohol and marijuana, they "accused her of being pregnant."
Which she was -- and Thomas doesn't seem to have been enthusiastic about being saddled with dadhood. In an October 25 text, he allegedly wrote, "Not my problem I didn't touch ya.. its ur problem to get ur stuff together.. I didn't fuck ya." He's also said to have pressed Doe to get an abortion, texting, "Have told u.. I dont need kids.. I don't want u going to court to spend ur money when u can [GO] to clinic."
In the end, DNA testing showed that Cox had impregnated Doe. But at trial, Cox, represented by attorney Harvey Steinberg, was exonerated. Why? Here's how our Kyle Garratt described it at the time:
Reasonable doubt that Cox did not rape the woman was all he needed to go free, and it seems Steinberg built a mountain of it out of this detail. He was then able to portray the alleged victim as a functional drinker capable of interacting with others while intoxicated without remembering it. The alleged victim also testified that she wouldn't have considered it rape if she had learned the following day she had sex with Thomas. She was willing to unknowingly have sex with him, but not Cox.
Now, however, Cox and Thomas face eight separate claims for relief focusing on "mental suffering and anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, lost wages, other economic and non-economic damages, plus attorney fees, costs, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest and expert witness fees."
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Hard to predict the likelihood of these matters reaching a courtroom, or if instead a settlement will make them quietly go away. But whatever happens, the document remains startling. Here it is.
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More from our Sports archive: "Perrish Cox walks with the help of his lawyer, Demaryius Thomas and doubt."
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