Tuesday morning, Michael Irvin and his legal team held a news conference to release security footage of the encounter with his sexual misconduct accuser.
Last month, NFL Network’s pulled Irvin from their Super Bowl LVII coverage after an alleged inappropriate encounter with a female employee at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Phoenix. Irvin has maintained his innocence and responded to the allegations by filing a $100 million lawsuit against Marriott and his accuser. Prior to Tuesday morning’s news conference, Irvin and his attorney, Levi McCathern, announced they filed to have the lawsuit dismissed without prejudice in Texas federal court and refiled the case in Arizona.
The refiled defamation lawsuit lists six defendants, including Irvin’s accuser, three other hotel employees, Marriott International, and Renaissance Hotel Operating Company. Refiling the lawsuit attempts to solve the fact that Marriott has claimed they don’t technically own the property where the incident took place.
Last week, Irvin held a news conference where he compared Marriott’s treatment of him to a lynching, claiming they refused him the right to view the video of the alleged sexual misconduct. After two separate judges ordered Marriott to turn over surveillance footage of the incident, Irvin and his legal team held a second news conference in Dallas Tuesday morning to publicly air the video.
Court documents filed by Marriott last week alleged a “visibly intoxicated” Michael Irvin “flagged down” the hotel employee and became aggressive in nature towards her during their encounter.
“Irvin also reached out and touched the Victim’s arm during this conversation without her consent, causing her to step back, becoming visibly uncomfortable. Irvin then asked the Victim whether she knew anything about having a ‘big Black man inside of [her].’ Taken aback by Irvin’s comments, the Victim responded that his comments were inappropriate, and she did not wish to discuss it further,” the document reads.
“Irvin then attempted to grab the Victim’s hand again and said he was ‘sorry if he brought up bad memories’ for her.’ The Victim pulled her hand away and tried to back away from Irvin as he continued to move towards her.”
In the now public video, which Irvin and his legal team allege should exonerate him of wrongdoing, the NFL analyst and Pro Football Hall of Famer can be seen having a conversation with his accuser. During the interaction, which lasted more than one minute, Irvin touched the woman’s elbow twice before they ultimately shake hands and parted ways. Irvin then appears to slap himself on the cheek three times before walking toward the entrance to take a selfie with another person. The surveillance video shared by Irvin’s legal team on Tuesday did not contain audio, making it difficult to counter or confirm the allegations presented in the court documents filed by Marriott.
In addition to claiming he is innocent, Irvin has maintained that he does not remember the incident. During his news conference last week, Irving stated he meets a lot of people while traveling for work, implying that it’s hard to remember all his interactions. But in the immediacy of being removed from NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII coverage, Irvin called into the Shan & RJ morning show on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas and admitted he didn’t remember the encounter “because I had a few drinks.”
[WFAA]
