Josh Jackson who snubbed the Celtics in the 2017 NBA Draft is now snubbed by the League and relegated to G-League play ...
Former KU star Josh Jackson accused of rape, orchestrating robbery in NY lawsuit
By Shreyas Laddha and Luke Nozicka
Former Kansas men’s basketball player Josh Jackson has been accused of raping a woman last year at a New York hotel and then sending two women to break into her apartment to threaten her, according to a federal lawsuit the woman filed.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this year in the Southern District of New York, accuses Jackson of assault and battery. The woman is also seeking damages from two women she says broke into her apartment during a robbery she claims was set up by Jackson.
The woman, listed in court records as Jane Doe, had been waiting for months to see if U.S. Judge Andrew Carter Jr. would allow her to proceed in the case while maintaining her anonymity. Her lawyer argued that to force her to reveal her identity would “create a chilling effect” on survivors of sexual violence. The judge recently ruled in her favor, so she can use the pseudonym.
“This case is not about money for the (woman),” her lawyer, Seamus Barrett, told The Star. “It is about making sure the defendants, including Mr. Jackson, are held to account for their outrageous and unlawful actions.”
In court filings, Jackson’s attorney, John Lauro, called the allegations “very serious, albeit entirely false,” and said Jackson “emphatically denies” that he committed any assault.
In a statement to The Star on Friday, Lauro added: “Mr. Jackson will vigorously contest these allegations in court and looks forward to the truth being fully told.”
Lauro had asked Carter to deny the woman’s request to not name herself publicly, contending his client is a “target” for anyone threatening “public humiliation for failing to pay on extortionate threats.” He also attacked her credibility.
“She maintains a provocative and sexualized social media presence, while seeking relationships with professional athletes and others,” Jackson’s attorney wrote, later adding: “Sadly, for too long in our nation’s history, black men have faced the horrific consequences of defending themselves against false allegations of sexual misconduct.”
In the lawsuit, the woman said she met Jackson, now 26, at a Super Bowl afterparty on Feb. 13, 2022. Jackson, who played for the University of Kansas from 2016–2017, was a member of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings but visiting New York City.
NBA player Andre Drummond, who played for the Brooklyn Nets at the time, hosted the party and invited the woman, who had a romantic interest in Drummond, according to the lawsuit.
Hoping to meet Drummond, the woman went to the party with a friend. Early on, the woman lost her phone. She found it after enlisting the help of multiple partygoers, including Jackson, to call it, her lawyer wrote in her lawsuit.
The woman, Jackson and other partygoers then took an Uber to one of the two nightclubs the group attended that evening. They consumed alcohol throughout the night, according to her complaint.
After she went home, the woman said Jackson texted her to “come through” before 3 a.m. Jackson also allegedly texted her, “I got $1,500 for you if you pull up.”
Barrett told The Star that his client did not accept the $1,500.
Jackson sent an Uber to take the woman from her apartment to his hotel, according to the lawsuit. The woman took the Uber, believing the party was still going on, her lawyer wrote.
But once at Jackson’s room at the New York Edition, a five-star hotel in Manhattan, the woman realized no one else was there, she said. Jackson opened the door wearing only basketball shorts, she recalled. She told him she was not there for sex, her attorney wrote.
Jackson told the woman how beautiful she was and tried to “impress” her by telling her he had $12 million in his bank account, according to the lawsuit.
“I am not here for your money,” the woman responded, her attorney wrote in the complaint. “I am not a gold digger.”
Having spent the evening drinking, the woman said she was tired and laid down on a bed, facing away from Jackson and falling asleep.
The woman was awoken when Jackson “ripped open” her clothing and sexually assaulted her, according to her lawsuit. She cried during the attack, her lawyer wrote, eventually “passing out from the trauma, confusion and horror of the rape.”
Hours later, the woman woke up and ran out of the room, she said. Her lawyer wrote that she went to a pharmacy to buy a morning-after contraception pill.
That morning, the woman said she started getting “threatening texts” from a man who she is also suing. His messages accused her of stealing a watch from Jackson — which she said she knew nothing about.
One of his texts allegedly went: “Josh is not gonna let this (stuff) go trust me!” She then got more messages from a different number from someone who said they knew her address.
The woman started to doze off at her apartment hours later when she heard her door, which was locked, being opened, according to her lawsuit.
Two “hoodie-clad” women — identified by Jane Doe’s lawyer as sisters — entered her bedroom, the lawsuit said, and one appeared to be holding a gun. She was threatened “with murder,” her attorney wrote.
“Help me, help me,” the woman recalled screaming. “I am being robbed!”
Doormen tackled the sisters, and numerous officers with the New York Police Department showed up and arrested them, the plaintiff’s attorney wrote.
The lawsuit claimed Jackson “orchestrated” the armed robbery.
The woman reported the robbery and rape to the NYPD, her attorney said. When The Star asked for reports, an NYPD spokesperson only said the department takes sexual assaults seriously and urged survivors to file police reports so detectives can investigate.
In June, The Star obtained a police report of an alleged sexual assault that occurred on that day at the New York Edition. The complaint, which does not name Jackson, states a woman arrived to the suspect’s hotel room after consuming alcoholic beverages, but was unable to recall what happened after.
The woman told police her clothes were removed when she woke up and “the suspect” was lying next to her. The suspect — described as 6 feet, 8 inches tall — attempted to get on top of her; she pushed him off her, got dressed and left, she told police.
She “believes she may be the victim of a sexual assault,” an officer wrote in the complaint, which was referred to the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit.
In court filings, Jackson’s lawyer said authorities “never contacted” Jackson about the woman’s “baseless accusations.”
The woman filed and received temporary protection orders against the sisters, according to records obtained by The Star.
The lawsuit marks the latest legal trouble for Jackson.
When he was a player for the Phoenix Suns, Jackson was arrested for resisting an officer in 2019 in Florida. He was told to leave after trying to enter the VIP section of a hip-hop festival in Miami Gardens, which led to an officer chasing him, according to media reports. Jackson reportedly was entered into a diversion program to settle the misdemeanor charge.
That same year, Jackson was accused in a family court case of using marijuana near his infant daughter in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Before that, Jackson was charged in 2017 with misdemeanor property damage in Douglas County, Kansas, after he allegedly vandalized a KU women’s basketball player’s car in Lawrence.
As part of diversion, Jackson agreed to attend anger management classes and refrain from alcohol and drugs for 12 months. He signed a “stipulation of facts” in which he admitted he “kicked her vehicle, breaking the left rear taillight and denting the driver’s door.”
Over the years, Jackson, the No. 4 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns, has also played for other teams, including the Detroit Pistons. He most recently signed with the Stockton Kings, an NBA G League team that released him days later.
