A spokesman for ESPN First Take host Shannon Sharpe is responding to a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges that Sharpe raped her.
Sharpe was the target of a lawsuit on Monday from a “Jane Doe” who claims he raped her at least twice during an “abusive” relationship that lasted several years.
But Lanny J. Davis, Sharpe’s attorney, calls the lawsuit a “shakedown” that is “filled with lies.”
𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Shannon Sharpe has released a statement denying all of the allegations recently made against him regarding sexual assault:
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 21, 2025
"I wanna put my tongue in your a**hole and then marry u."
😳😳😳
Sharpe's attorney is calling this a "shakedown" to extract millions of… https://t.co/mV6nvZc6N7 pic.twitter.com/pnsvDVQLtH
“It is filled with lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, and it will not succeed,” Davis said, according to Pro Football Talk.
Davis is also claiming that the unnamed woman “secretly recorded” a sexual encounter with Sharpe that he says she is using to blackmail the ESPNer. Davis contends that the video they saw was “heavily edited and taken entirely out of context” and that they hwere notgiven the full, unedited tape.
Davis said the “secret taping was all part of her planned set-up as part of her blackmail scheme.”
Sharpe, Davis claims, “categorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct — especially the gross lie of ‘rape’ — and will not submit to what he sees as an egregious attempt at blackmail.”
It seems clear that these recorded sexual encounters could form the central part of the upcoming case if it goes to court.
The woman’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, claims that Sharpe was abusive and controlling and that he won’t get away with his treatment of the woman despite his power and riches.
“Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants,” Buzbee said, “completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”
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