Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour by 6 massage therapists in the Baltimore area according to reports out of Maryland.
Per reports in The Baltimore Banner, some therapists in the area have refused other work with Tucker because of his conduct. At least two spas are believed to have banned him their venues altogether. The behaviour is alleged to have taken place over the course of 5 years, between 2012-2016.
Though none of the women who accused Tucker of inappropriate behaviour have filed reports with the police, one told the Banner that Tucker “repeatedly attempted to expose his genitals,” and accused him of touching her wrist with his exposed, semi-erect penis.
For his part, Tucker has denied any wrongdoing, and took to social media to both refute the claims, as well as take aim at The Banner’s reporting.
“I have never before been accused of misconduct of any kind, and I have never been accused of acting inappropriately in front of a massage therapist or during a massage therapy session or during other bodywork,” Tucker wrote in a statement posted to his Twitter/X account. “I have never received any complaints from a massage therapist, have never been dismissed from a massage therapy or bodywork session, and have never been told that I was not welcome at any spa or other place of business.”
“In accusing me of misconduct, the article takes innocuous, or ambiguous, interactions and skews them so out of proportion they are no longer recognizable, and it presents vague insinuations as fact. This is desperate tabloid fodder,” Tucker continued.
“It is no surprise that the paper’s interactions with me were marked by journalistic failures at every turn. When I first learned that the newspaper was writing this article, they refused to reveal the full claims they were planning to make against me. It wasn’t until I was forced to hire the leading defamation law firm in the U.S. to write to the paper that they finally revealed what they were planning on writing. Then, when they did finally provide some of this information, they gave me next to no time to provide a response. It is clear why — they had no interest in what I (or anyone else) had to say.”
“Once I reviewed the newspaper’s allegations against me, it was apparent that the newspaper was deliberately misconstruing events as nefarious (which were not) and were relying on third party speculation to create the false, preconceived narrative about me that they believed would generate clicks. The newspaper had already written this false, salacious profile well before ever attempting to speak to me or any of the bodywork professionals I have worked with closely for the better part of the last decade. The newspaper made no effort to interview these key witnesses until prompted to do so by my defamation attorney — because they did not want to hear what they had to say about me.”
The NFL & Ravens have yet to issue any kind of statement regarding the article as of this writing.
Photo: MDGovpics. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.