Why Shannon Sharpe Offered Rape Accuser $10 Million To Settle Outside Of Court

Yahoo

25-04-2025

Days after Shannon Sharpe was accused of sexually assaulting an adult woman in her early 20s in a damning lawsuit, his counsel revealed he offered the accuser "at least" $10 million to settle outside of court.
In a new statement, Shannon Sharpe's lawyers are shedding more light on his lucrative offer. According to them, the former Denver Broncos player offered the accuser a pretty penny to keep their details about their sexual relationship private.
For those who may have missed it, Sharpe was hit with a $50 million lawsuit on Sunday, April 21, 2025. The accuser, who filed under the name "Jane Doe," but has now been identified as Gabi Zuniga, accused Sharpe of raping her on more than one occasion.
Zuniga, alongside her lawyer, Tony Buzbee (who has been in the headlines lately due to his rift with Jay-Z), also released alleged phone recordings between her and Shannon, which feature the Hall of Fame football player threatening to "choke" her.
Days later, news broke that Sharpe had offered Zuniga "at least $10 million" to settle the case outside of court, and his legal representative, Lanny J. Davis, said it was not an admission of "wrongdoing."
In a new statement, attorney Mitchell Schuster shared more details about Sharpe's relationship with Zuniga, calling it a "consensual, sexual relationship" that lasted "over a 2-year period."
He went on to say that after Sharpe refused to have a child with Zuniga, she "resorted to extortion," leading to his client's multi-million dollar offer.
"While Shannon was willing to pay her a substantial amount of money to avoid the intimate details of his personal life from being exposed, as many high-profile individuals often do when they are being threatened, that is no longer the case," he said.
Sharpe's legal counsel continued, "This is a shakedown, pure and simple, and we have the evidence to prove it."
They added, "And while there are certainly real victims of sexual assault whose stories deserve to be told, Gabi is not one of them and her attempt to extort Shannon with her false claims only serves to distract from the attention that real abuse victims deserve.'
Sharpe echoed something similar during an earlier Instagram post, in which he slammed Buzbee for targeting another successful Black man and defaming his character.
Zuniga's lawsuit against Sharpe isn't all the Super Bowl champion has to worry about, though.
According to PEOPLE, a New York woman named Michele Evans also filed a defamation lawsuit against the "Club Shay Shay" host over alleged dealings that occurred in their relationship in 2010.
In the legal documents, Evans claimed that Sharpe sexually assaulted her after getting into an argument over his alleged infidelity.
'The Defendant proceeded to forcefully subdue me, compelling me to my knees and subsequently engaging in non-consensual oral penetration,' Evans alleged. 'Despite my protests, he persisted in this violation.'
But the horrific claims didn't stop there.
Evans continued, 'Thereafter, Shannon's coercion escalated as he maneuvered me onto the bed and achieved non-consensual vaginal penetration, all the while proclaiming his intent to 'Make it so no other man would want me.'"
Elsewhere, during Schuster's statement defending Sharpe against the accusations lobbed against him from Zuniga, he also addressed the news about the second lawsuit against Sharpe, filed by Evans.
'It should be of no surprise that when someone famous is in the news, all sorts of people crawl out of the woodwork to share their connection to that person in an attempt to profit from that alleged relationship,' he said.
He continued, "This is exactly what is happening to Shannon Sharpe and the resurrection of the case involving Michele Evans is a perfect example. Sadly, Ms. Evans became obsessed with Shannon and decided to manufacture a claim against him."
"When she could not find a lawyer to pursue her outrageous story, she filed a civil complaint on her own that is completely devoid of merit. The fact is that Shannon has had no contact with this person for many years, and it is our understanding that she is still on probation after serving 3 years in prison for trying to kill her husband so that she could hopefully pursue a relationship with Shannon," he finished.