Saints RB Bush could reach out-of-court settlement with plaintiffs

According reports by Yahoo Sports, former NCAA cornerback for USC Reggie Bush might have reached out-of-court settlement with the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against him asking the star running back, who is currently wearing No. 25 New Orleans Saints jersey, and his family to return nearly $300,000 in cash and gifts they accepted during Bush’s college football career with the USC.

According to attorney Brian Watkins, the depositions scheduled to be made by the suitors on Wednesday have been cancelled. The suitors, Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels tried to attract Bush as a client for their marketing firm, New Era, while he was at the University of Southern California. While Bush did not sign with New Era, they filed a lawsuit against the running back to ask for the money to be repaid. Michaels reached an out-of-court settlement with Bush’s family in April 2007 that included a confidentiality agreement, but in late December Bush lost his bid to go to confidential arbitration to settle Lake’s lawsuit and did not show up for a deposition scheduled in February 2008.

The lawsuit also caused Bush to be a subject in the NCAA investigation into USC's athletic program as they though he received possibly illegal benefits and violated association rules. If the investigators find that Bush is retroactively ineligible and determines that the USC violated rules, the player could lose his 2005 Heisman Trophy and his former college would have to their national championships in 2004 and 2005. But if an out-of-court settlement is reached between Bush and the plaintiffs, the NCAA and Pac-10 Conference would have to stop investigation and every one will keep what they already have.

Cowboys WR Irvin is facing one-million-dollar extortion

Another woman filed lawsuit against another NFL player, seeking $1 million because of a rape happened two years ago. As expected, the lawyer for the player claimed that it was another story of extorting big money from sports figures.

This time the player getting involved is former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin. A Florida woman filed a lawsuit against him Thursday, claiming that Irvin and another man raped her more than two years ago.

The lawsuit claims that a woman referred to as Jane Doe met Irvin and another man at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on July 4, 2007 and Irvin bought her drinks. The two men then raped her in Irvin’s hotel room, according to the suit.

Working as an analyst for NFL Network after officially taking off his NFL jersey, Irvin could not expect what would happen today when he was enjoying the amorous meet. Something may indeed happen, but calling it a rape more than two years later and asking for compensation just sounds unreasonable. No wonder Irvin’s lawyer called it extortion, the price one has to pay for fame day.

Woman suing Roethlisberger quit host job in casino

More than one year after filing a suit against the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in Washoe District Court in Reno last July, the woman who filed the suit has quit her job because of the way the casino she worked for was treating her.

Having been working as a VIP host at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, the woman alleged that the two-time Super Bowl champ lured her to his room under false pretenses and forced himself on her. After the alleged incident, the woman took several leaves of absence for medical reasons in the months after the alleged incident, but returned to work in March and had been there since. But the woman claimed that the Harrah’s officials conspired to cover up the incident, and she had to quit her job in the casino.

Roethlisberger has denied the allegations and lawyers for him and some Harrah’s officials filed motion to dismiss the suit but Judge Brent Adams denied the motion as well as the other motion of moving the trial to Douglas County near to Lake Tahoe.

Former Harrah’s employee filed a motion to dismiss Roethlisberger suit

Stacy Dingman, a former Harrah’s employee, said she was formerly the best friend of the woman who claimed Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger raped her during a celebrity golf tournament in July 2008. And she has filed a motion to dismiss the Roethlisberger suit because she did not want to be “unjustifiably dragged into this baseless lawsuit.”

Dingman used to work as director of hotels at Harrah’s and was among the nine defendants named in the lawsuit filed last month in Washoe County District Court. The woman who sued Roethlisberger said the nine defendants conspired to cover up the alleged incident because Roethlisberger is friends with John Koster, one of the nine and president of Harrah’s northern Nevada operations.

However, in the motion filed Monday, a Reno lawyer representing Dingman said that there is no evidence or witnesses to support any of the allegations in the lawsuit because the woman did not do anything to report the alleged incident right after the incident but claimed sexual assault a year after it occurred.