Howard says man’s swimsuit attributable to ‘unrequited worship’

Outdated-fashioned NBA big name Dwight Howard has argued that allegations of sexual assault and battery towards him are baseless and that a Georgia court might possibly most likely perchance even just composed right away rule in his desire and push apart the costs with out a trial.

A Gwinnett County court has yet to settle referring to the petition, nonetheless in a Thursday filing that was acquired by ESPN, Howard’s attorneys again claimed that Howard and a particular person named Stephen Harper engaged in a consensual come across spirited a third particular person at Howard’s Georgia situation in July 2021.

Harper filed a lawsuit in July along with his lawyers accusing Howard of sexually assaulting him for the interval of the come across, along with “intentional infliction of emotional anguish” and counterfeit imprisonment.

In October, Howard denied the allegations and requested the court to push apart the case.

On Thursday, Howard’s attorneys went extra, alleging that key text messages were deleted and never a part of the preliminary criticism filed by Harper’s attorneys. Howard’s attorneys additionally alleged that a pull of the iMessage dialog between Harper and Howard revealed that some messages were doctored.

Thursday’s filing involves screenshots of alleged text messages between Howard and Harper that were now not within the preliminary criticism.

“Briefly, the totality of the text messages between Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper make it abundantly trail that Mr. Harper’s claims are frivolous, that he was a willing participant within the events of July 19, 2021, and the early morning hours of July 20, 2021, and that the touching of his particular person had been invited by him,” Howard’s attorneys write in Thursday’s filing.

“Extra importantly, the sing messages now not perfect describe consent nonetheless additionally that Mr. Harper was initiating one of the sexual contact. Mr. Harper now not perfect invited the preliminary ride, nonetheless tried to birth a 2d come across for the explanation that first was so scrumptious. Because it’s a ways undisputed that Mr. Harper consented to the touching between him and Mr. Howard, Mr. Harper’s claims necessarily fail, and Mr. Howard is entitled to summary judgment because the trail consent negates the frequent ingredient of intent and the claims of Assault, Battery, Fraudulent Imprisonment, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Worry fall worship a home of playing cards.”

Harper’s lawyers did now not right away acknowledge to a quiz of for commentary.

In Harper’s preliminary criticism, his lawyers said Harper and Howard first started corresponding over advise messages on Instagram in May perchance perchance 2021, with Harper initiating the replace. That criticism included screenshots of alleged Instagram exchanges between Harper and Howard from 2021, along with an Uber receipt of Harper’s day out to Howard’s situation on the evening of the come across.

Harper went to police a year later, in accordance with a July 2022 incident file from the Gwinnett County Police Division, which was acquired by ESPN. No prices were filed.

“That is nothing more than a classic case of unrequited worship,” Howard’s lawyers wrote in Thursday’s filing. “After one consensual evening collectively, Mr. Howard was now not drawn to keeping Mr. Harper’s company.”

They added, “Mr. Harper advised Mr. Howard in text that he would ‘accumulate my parade’ in step with taking the private relationship public and would birth by telling Mr. Howard’s mother and sisters about Mr. Howard’s private existence.”

Howard’s lawyers explain that Howard acquired more than one demands for cost, every from a spread of lawyers and legislation companies over a year.

“When these threats and a lot of different demands for money went unfulfilled,” Howard’s lawyers wrote, “Mr. Harper filed the instantaneous lawsuit as revenge and in an try to tarnish Mr. Howard’s reputation, ‘accumulate [his] attention,’ and fulfill the specter of telling the final world referring to the private, consensual evening.”

Howard, 38, last performed within the NBA in 2021-22 with the Los Angeles Lakers. He’s an eight-time All-Star and a three-time NBA Defensive Participant of the Year.