Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is being sued by a female Uber driver who has accused him of sexually assaulting her, according to court documents obtained by TheWrap.
The lawsuit, filed in Arizona on Tuesday, claims that Winston grabbed the woman’s crotch while in the drive-thru of a Mexican restaurant in the Phoenix area in March 2016. The plaintiff, named only as Kate P. in the filing, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
Winston is currently serving a three-game suspension for the incident, after an eight-month investigation by the NFL determined he touched the driver “in an inappropriate and sexual manner without her consent.” Testimony and phone records made the driver’s claims “consistent and credible,” the NFL said in June, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The driver reported the incident to Uber, but did not file a civil or criminal complaint at the time.
After denying the claims for several months, Winston released a statement earlier this summer saying he “genuinely apologized” for his behavior. “I should never have put myself in that situation,” Winston said.
“My experience should highlight the importance of believing women when they have the courage to come forward about sexual assault,” the woman said in a statement after the NFL’s suspension of Winston in June. “Perhaps that night could have been prevented if others had been believed before me.”
Without Winston, the Bucs have won their first two games, despite being major underdogs in their season opener against the New Orleans Saints earlier this month.
This isn’t the first sexual misconduct incident attached to Winston’s name. The 24-year-old quarterback was accused of raping a student at Florida State University while in college, but wasn’t charged. FSU paid $1.7 million to Winston’s accuser in 2016 to settle a lawsuit over the university’s handling of the incident.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.