Avery Bradley accused of sexual assault; denies allegations

[Eja117]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

[jdz101]

What a pile of garbage.

That is so completely out of character for Bradley.

[Roy H.]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

How do you know either of the parties leaked anything? Maybe it was somebody inone of the lawyers’ offices making some quick TMZ cash, for instance.

And, there are a ton of reasons women don’t prosecute sexual assault cases. Having their names smeared publicly is one of them. Apparently this woman has some sort of reality TV career. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be identified as a rape victim for the rest of her life.

The world view that “if a woman alleges bad behavior against a rich man, she must be after his money” is sexist and elitist, and is part of the reason that so many powerful men feel enabled.

Why not wait for facts, instead of making wild assumptions about either AB or the alleged victim?

[Roy H.]

What a pile of garbage.

That is so completely out of character for Bradley.

What does that even mean?

Clergy, churchgoers, cops, teachers, doctors, etc. rape and molest people. Not all bad guys go around with a black hat and a sneer.

I loved AB as a player, but I’ve got no idea what his demons are.  It sounds like he was involved in some behavior that isn’t exactly consistent with a devout family man’s, whether or not a sexual assault took place.

[KGs Knee]

What a pile of garbage.

That is so completely out of character for Bradley.

What does that even mean?

Clergy, churchgoers, cops, teachers, doctors, etc. rape and molest people. Not all bad guys go around with a black hat and a sneer.

I loved AB as a player, but I’ve got no idea what his demons are.  It sounds like he was involved in some behavior that isn’t exactly consistent with a devout family man’s, whether or not a sexual assault took place.

You ain't kidding.

https://nypost.com/2017/12/27/teacher-busted-for-sex-with-teen-after-dad-catches-them-in-car-cops/

[Neurotic Guy]

When my good friend and roommate at the time told me (about 35 years ago) that he had hit his girlfriend, I was sick to my stomach.  He was (is) someone you'd never, ever think would do something like that.  Kind, smart, hard-worker, loyal and thoughtful friend, gentle guy.  He was about 22 at the time.  I came to find out that his dad (also a seemingly good and generous man) had a temper and had hit his mother on occasion.  My friend got so frustrated with his girlfriend that he resorted to what he'd had modeled for him.  NO EXCUSE -- just a reason, a way to understand how/why something like this happens.

My friend's been married (different woman) for nearly 30 years and I don't believe (though who knows?) that he's ever done that again.  He was shocked with himself, but it happened and he had to accept that he did it and move on from that. 

I realize the accusation is different, but I tell the above to suggest that AB's persona may hide a different side of himself (to some extent we all have exhibited behavior that we wouldn't display in public).   I don't know that he committed a sexual assault, but if he did I hope he's horrified by it and never does it again.  If the accusations are true, I hope the victim can get past it in a healthy way.

[Big333223]

When my good friend and roommate at the time told me (about 35 years ago) that he had hit his girlfriend, I was sick to my stomach.  He was (is) someone you'd never, ever think would do something like that.  Kind, smart, hard-worker, loyal and thoughtful friend, gentle guy.  He was about 22 at the time.  I came to find out that his dad (also a seemingly good and generous man) had a temper and had hit his mother on occasion.  My friend got so frustrated with his girlfriend that he resorted to what he'd had modeled for him.  NO EXCUSE -- just a reason, a way to understand how/why something like this happens.

My friend's been married (different woman) for nearly 30 years and I don't believe (though who knows?) that he's ever done that again.  He was shocked with himself, but it happened and he had to accept that he did it and move on from that. 

I realize the accusation is different, but I tell the above to suggest that AB's persona may hide a different side of himself (to some extent we all have exhibited behavior that we wouldn't display in public).   I don't know that he committed a sexual assault, but if he did I hope he's horrified by it and never does it again.  If the accusations are true, I hope the victim can get past it in a healthy way.

It's true. We don't know everything there is to know about our closest friends and family, let alone people we only know by watching them on TV. That doesn't mean anything for or against Avery but I've found it to be true.

Sad story, anyway. And frustrating.

[Eja117]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

How do you know either of the parties leaked anything? Maybe it was somebody inone of the lawyers’ offices making some quick TMZ cash, for instance.

And, there are a ton of reasons women don’t prosecute sexual assault cases. Having their names smeared publicly is one of them. Apparently this woman has some sort of reality TV career. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be identified as a rape victim for the rest of her life.

The world view that “if a woman alleges bad behavior against a rich man, she must be after his money” is sexist and elitist, and is part of the reason that so many powerful men feel enabled.

Why not wait for facts, instead of making wild assumptions about either AB or the alleged victim?

I guess I have a surprising amount of trust in lawyers.

[Roy H.]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

How do you know either of the parties leaked anything? Maybe it was somebody inone of the lawyers’ offices making some quick TMZ cash, for instance.

And, there are a ton of reasons women don’t prosecute sexual assault cases. Having their names smeared publicly is one of them. Apparently this woman has some sort of reality TV career. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be identified as a rape victim for the rest of her life.

The world view that “if a woman alleges bad behavior against a rich man, she must be after his money” is sexist and elitist, and is part of the reason that so many powerful men feel enabled.

Why not wait for facts, instead of making wild assumptions about either AB or the alleged victim?

I guess I have a surprising amount of trust in lawyers.

What about their interns, receptionists, secretaries and paralegals?

[RJ87]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

How do you know either of the parties leaked anything? Maybe it was somebody inone of the lawyers’ offices making some quick TMZ cash, for instance.

And, there are a ton of reasons women don’t prosecute sexual assault cases. Having their names smeared publicly is one of them. Apparently this woman has some sort of reality TV career. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be identified as a rape victim for the rest of her life.

The world view that “if a woman alleges bad behavior against a rich man, she must be after his money” is sexist and elitist, and is part of the reason that so many powerful men feel enabled.

Why not wait for facts, instead of making wild assumptions about either AB or the alleged victim?

Furthermore, there's a confidentiality agreement - it's standard practice to include a clause that if she violates the agreement or in some cases if she even acknowledges that there is an NDA in place, she'd have to return the settlement money.

And I agree with Roy's point about why she may not have wanted to file criminal charges. Rape cases and trials are ugly often brutal for the victims. Perhaps she didn't want to relive it. Perhaps she realized she would be going up against a high profile athlete with resources that she may not be able to match to hire a legal team. Perhaps she worried about what's happening in this thread: that she'd be doubted because of his squeaky clean image. We'll likely never know.

[Eja117]

Lol the woman just wants his money.

Sounds like he willingly gave her a lot of it to keep her quiet, too.

With absolutely no details about the allegations, why would you assume she’s lying?

Because apparently (assuming this is correct) she settled for money.  To me that essentially tells me that she doesn't really believe that his conduct rises to criminal on any level because she didn't pursue it criminally. If you don't pursue it in a court you're telling me you either don't really think it's all that bad or that you don't desire to be cross examined.

Further I seriously doubt that he is the one that violated the confidentiality agreement. That tells me that she basically extorted him for money in order to keep quiet and then couldn't even do that, which means she is not to be trusted.

That's how.

How do you know either of the parties leaked anything? Maybe it was somebody inone of the lawyers’ offices making some quick TMZ cash, for instance.

And, there are a ton of reasons women don’t prosecute sexual assault cases. Having their names smeared publicly is one of them. Apparently this woman has some sort of reality TV career. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be identified as a rape victim for the rest of her life.

The world view that “if a woman alleges bad behavior against a rich man, she must be after his money” is sexist and elitist, and is part of the reason that so many powerful men feel enabled.

Why not wait for facts, instead of making wild assumptions about either AB or the alleged victim?

I guess I have a surprising amount of trust in lawyers.

What about their interns, receptionists, secretaries and paralegals?

Do these people have names? They have jobs they probably don't want to lose, right? They presumably desire to have careers available to them in this field, right?

I mean how much do you suppose an accusation of a non all star is worth to TMZ?

AB may very well be guilty. But without actually seeing evidence and with an accuser who also didn't want us to see the evidence I can't really place more faith in the accuser than in AB.

Accusations with no evidence that others deny just don't do it for me.

[CelticsElite]

I think it's a little pointless to debate whether Avery did it or not. At the moment, its he said she said.  Unless there is hard evidence or more witnesses or something more direct evidence, we will never know the truth about this situation

[TomHeinsohn]

Avery is representing himself in civil court, citing his prodigious defensive abilities.

[PhoSita]

I agree.

But the response should not be to inherently assume anyone accused is absolutely guilty.  That has very detrimental ramifications as well.

One way to look at this is to rely on one simple premise: 

A presumption of innocence.

This can apply to both the accuser and the accused.  The accuser is not presumed a liar. The accused is not presumed a perpetrator.  The court of public opinion is often an underinformed or falsely informed courtroom.  We jump to conclusions based on all sorts of unknown, unrelated or correlated information. 

That said, when we accept two seemingly mutually exclusive presumptions, we might find ourselves where we probably should be: respectful, cautious, seeking clarification and waiting for sufficient information.  I don't want Avery Bradley to suffer if he's innocent, and I surely don't want any victim to feel they won't be heard and respected.   This requires us to postpone a rush to judgement -- unless the preponderence of evidence is clear and irrefutable.

The difficult thing about this strategy -- suspending any definite belief about what happened in the absence of definitive evidence or a legal ruling -- is that when it comes to these types of claims, it's actually quite rare that there will ever be any sort of conclusion of that kind.  Look at Roy Moore -- there will probably never be any serious legal proceedings brought against him for the things he did, but is there much room for any serious doubt that he's a creep?

I think that in practice, saying that you "reserve judgment" (I know that's not exactly what you said) as to the culpability of somebody who is accused of this sort of behavior is much the same as actively disbelieving the accuser, because it places the burden on the accuser to establish that anybody should look at the accused in a different light than before.

That's not to say the easy answer is just "Assume 100% that anybody who is accused is guilty," but I don't think that remaining neutral is an effective solution, if you want to be supportive of survivors and help change the culture that implicitly and explicitly encourages and enables this behavior.

[jdz101]

What a pile of garbage.

That is so completely out of character for Bradley.

What does that even mean?

Clergy, churchgoers, cops, teachers, doctors, etc. rape and molest people. Not all bad guys go around with a black hat and a sneer.

I loved AB as a player, but I’ve got no idea what his demons are.  It sounds like he was involved in some behavior that isn’t exactly consistent with a devout family man’s, whether or not a sexual assault took place.

I find it very difficult to believe that Avery Bradley would rape someone is what it means.

Innocent until proven guilty.

The fact that the chick is an "instagram model" who apparently filmed the intercourse, but at the same time was drunk and passed out, tells me a lot of what I need to know.