The civil lawsuit filed against Antonio Brown last week might not be the only legal trouble the New England Patriots wide receiver faces in the days ahead.
Sports Illustrated’s Robert Klemko, who detailed Brown’s strange off-the-field behavior in a bombshell report published Monday, indicated Tuesday on WEEI’s “Dale & Keefe” that criminal charges might be coming against the 31-year-old.
“He has a history now of hiring people to do a job and then creating some sort of division when the pay is due and then not paying,” Klemko said, as transcribed by WEEI.com. “At some point, that becomes illegal. A lot of people (are) under verbal contracts with Antonio Brown because they don’t have any suspicion that he’s not going to pay them because he is worth this amount of money.
“We did hear over the course of the reporting that there were a couple people considering criminal charges against Antonio Brown. We weren’t able to report on any of those specifically because they haven’t gathered all of their evidence and made the filings and all that. I think that is going to be coming in the next few weeks.”
Among the damning allegations against Brown in the SI story was an accusation of sexual conduct from a female artist claiming the All-Pro wideout approached her “butt-ass naked, with a hand cloth covering his (penis)” while she was painting a mural in his home in 2017. Brown, who was accused of sexual assault and rape in a lawsuit filed last week by former trainer Britney Taylor, on Monday denied the artist’s allegations via his lawyer.
Brown looked good Sunday in his debut with the Patriots, catching four passes for 56 yards with a touchdown in New England’s 43-0 win over the Miami Dolphins. It’ll be interesting to see how this season unfolds, however, as Brown has been a lightning rod for controversy since forcing a trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers and then being released by the Oakland Raiders, and the new allegations sure don’t paint him in a positive light.
“I think there’s much more going on behind the scenes than has been revealed and frankly surprised it hasn’t come out yet considering all the people he’s associated with in his life and moved on from,” Klemko said, per WEEI.com “The galaxy of his entourage is large. We had three or four people reach out to us after the story was published saying they had more information. I don’t know if he’s an evil person, I just know there’s a lot more to it.”
Stay tuned.
