Report: Accuser claims Antonio Brown intimidated her with texts including photos of her children
UPDATE: Brown has been released by the Patriots.
A second woman alleging she experienced sexual misconduct from Antonio Brown emerged Monday in a lengthy story on Brown’s behavior over the last few years.
Now, the same woman is saying the New England Patriots wide receiver responded to her claims by sending an intimidating group text message to her that included photos of her children, according to Sports Illustrated’s Robert Klemko, who wrote the original story.
The latest accusation against Antonio Brown
The woman claiming to receive intimidating texts from Brown is the one who anonymously accused the receiver of advancing on her while he was naked with a towel barely covering his penis in 2017. She was reportedly painting a mural in his Pittsburgh home for him at the time.
After rejecting his unwanted advances, the artist said Brown ended their professional relationship and ghosted her despite still not having paid for a painting of her’s he won at a charity auction.
Brown denied the account through his lawyer when the story was published, but reportedly responded to his accuser privately by sending her a profane and bizarre group text message.
The accuser’s lawyer included screencaps of the messages in a letter to the NFL sent Thursday. The messages appear to show Brown ordering an associate to investigate the artist and including a picture of her children pulled from her Instagram account.
New tonight: Antonio Brown sent our source from Monday’s story menacing group text messages, including a picture of her children with instructions for his associates to investigate her.
Her lawyer wrote the NFL calling for the intimidation to stop. https://t.co/rCTM8WSI6Z pic.twitter.com/QtONzBf7Ig— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) September 20, 2019
Sports Illustrated reportedly verified the texts were sent from the same number Brown used with the artist in 2017. Brown’s lawyer Darren Heitner was reportedly included in the group text, but told the outlet he had not advised Brown to communicate with the woman.
On Thursday evening, Lisa J. Banks, a lawyer for the artist, reportedly sent the letter to the NFL seeking an end to Brown's conduct that she called “intimidating and threatening to our client, in violation of the NFL Personal Conduct Policy.”
From Sports Illustrated:
“Our client ... is understandably frightened by these text messages, which are clearly intended to threaten and intimidate her,” the lawyer wrote. “While she certainly qualifies as a ‘starving artist,’ she has never approached Mr. Brown, nor will she, about seeking money to compensate her for his sexual misconduct, contrary to his allegations in the text messages.”
When Sports Illustrated reached out to a phone number supposedly belonging to Brown, a man sounding like Brown answered, then replied to a text asking for proof of his claim that the woman asked him for money with “foh clown.”
This accusation comes amid the NFL’s investigation into a lawsuit against Brown alleging sexual assault and rape filed last week by a different woman, a trainer with whom he used to work.
Rather than be placed on the commissioner’s exempt list immediately following the allegations, Brown was allowed to be active for the Patriots in Week 2 after signing a one-year, $15 million deal with the team. He still could be facing a suspension from the league over that matter, as well as this one.
The situation has already hit Brown in the wallet, costing him a shoe deal with Nike as well as a helmet deal he picked up after a bizarre grievance fight. Allegedly contacting a woman who has made serious allegations against him — and in this manner — during a delicate investigation process have cost him even more.
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