Last week was the first hearing for Shannon Sharpe’s sexual assault, but even though the celebrity showed up to court, the attorney representing Sharpe’s accuser did not.
“Clark County District Court Judge Anna Albertson expressed her disappointment in court that no legal representation was present for the plaintiff,” KLAS-TV reports, noting that the attorney’s failure to appear at the hearing was “strange.”
Tony Buzbee is the attorney representing Sharpe’s ex-girlfriend.
The alleged victim says she met the former athlete in a gym when she was just 19 years old and that they dated on and off for two years.
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) April 22, 2025
Months back, she filed a $50 million lawsuit against him alleging “assault, sexual assault, battery, and sexual battery.”
“After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no,”” her lawsuit also reads.
Sharpe has always maintained his innocence.
“To my family, friends, supporters and colleagues, I want to speak to you directly and from the heart,” Sharpe said in a video released on X back in April. “This is a shakedown. I’m going to be open, transparent and defend myself, because this isn’t right.”