Legal

Deshaun Watson is open to settling with the 20-plus women accusing him of sexual misconduct -- but only if confidentiality agreements are NOT involved ... this, according to the NFL superstar's attorney.

The Texans QB's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, gave an update on his client's legal battle to ESPN on Monday ... saying he's not opposed to hashing out a financial settlement with accusers -- but any deal HAS to remain public.

"I do not want anybody to be saying that this guy paid off women to stay quiet and so, if there ever was a settlement of any kind, it would have to be public and therefore both sides, [Watson] and the women, would be able to say to the world at large whatever they wanted," Hardin said.

As for the accusers, lawyer Tony Buzbee has previously made it clear there will not be any settlements ... saying, it's "not happening."

Hardin also says 10 women have filed criminal complaints with police ... adding 2 of those women are not involved in the civil case.

Britney Spears and her new lawyer say Jamie Spears has stripped Britney of her dignity, autonomy and fundamental liberties ... and they lay out their case in new legal docs as to why he must be removed as conservator of her estate.

In the new docs, Britney and her attorney, former federal prosecutor Matt Rosengart, claim Jamie has essentially terrorized his daughter, forcing her to get certain treatments and signing off on drug regimens that were allegedly harmful to her.

The docs also challenge Jamie's management of the conservatorship, claiming he's made a king's ransom over the last 13 years. He gets $16,000 a month plus $2k a month for office expenses. He also got 1.5% of the gross revenues from her Vegas residency ... which brought in $137.7 million. The docs say Jamie's cut alone was at least $2.1 mil. The docs go on to say Jamie got $2.95% from Britney's 2011 Femme Fatale tour ... an estimated $500k.

Britney and Rosengart say Jamie is ill-equipped to manage Britney's business affairs, saying his family "struggled financially under his leadership and filed for bankruptcy in 1998."

The docs claim Britney's life has been upended by the conflict she has with her dad. The docs say they don't speak and the current situation is "traumatizing, insane and depressing."

The docs call the relationship "venomous" and "it impairs Ms. Spears's mental health, her well-being, and her ability to pursue and continue with her extraordinary career."

One of the more interesting parts of the document is the intimation Britney may have possibly needed some sort of conservatorship 13 years ago but things have drastically changed ... "Since receiving professional medical care at the outset of this conservatorship over thirteen years ago, Ms. Spears is clearly in a different place now, and she has been for many years. The entire world has witnessed Ms. Spears working tirelessly -- with astonishing dedication, precision, and excellence -- as a musical artist and performer, an exceptional earner for Mr. Spears (and others) who had a financial interest in making sure she would continue to work and perform."

Britney Spears and her new lawyer have made their move ... filing legal docs with the name of a person whom they want to manage the conservatorship ... as far as business deals are concerned.

Britney's lawyer, Matt Rosengart, filed the docs requesting that Jason Rubin be appointed conservatorship of her estate. Rubin is a CPA with lots of credentials which Rosengart presumably believes is perfectly suited to handle Britney's contracts and other business affairs.

Rubin has experience handling financial, elder abuse litigation and has managed complex trust portfolios ... this according to his website.

This all presumes, of course, that Rosengart and Britney can force the removal of Jamie as conservator of her estate.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Rubin would have all financial authority to manage Britney's estate, along with powers of attorney to make health care decisions, and manage real estate.

The powers of attorney are interesting. Health care decisions have been vested in the conservator of Britney's person ... currently Jodi Montgomery.

According to the docs, Britney and Rosengart also want Rubin to prosecute civil harassment restraining orders.

The docs list Britney's cash assets at $2,730,454, and her non-cash assets at $57,666,398. This is almost certainly not her complete financial portfolio. There are a lot of Morgan Stanley accounts listed, and real property (homes) are valued at $8,455,483.

TMZ broke the story ... Rosengart will first try to remove Jamie and then make a full-court press to end the conservatorship.

R. Kelly is facing new allegations in his criminal case out of Chicago -- which is about to go to trial next month -- including claims that he sexually abused a male minor ... whom he's said to have met at a McDonald's.

Prosecutors in Kelly's federal sex trafficking case filed the bombshell Friday, seeking to enter new evidence they say supports their accusations of a slew of new crimes they insist Kelly committed ... including alleged abuse of a male under the age of 18 in the 2000s.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Kelly met a 17-year-old boy in 2006 at a McDonald's ... whom they say Kelly then invited to a party at his Chicago residence. The kid went with his parents, but the feds say Kelly told him to swing by next time by himself ... and, apparently, the 17-year-old did -- at which point, things allegedly turned sexual.

The feds say that upon returning visits to Kelly's place -- and under the guise of trying to help jumpstart the boy's singing career -- Kelly began a sexual relationship with him. Soon after that, prosecutors claim the 17-year-old intro'd Kelly to yet another minor male -- who was either 16 or 17 at the time -- and they say Kelly sought to sexually abuse him too.

It wasn't until years later, it seems, that something materialized between the second John Doe and Kelly, so say the feds. They say Kelly did, in fact, begin a sexual relationship with him as well -- but that he allegedly would command the guy to have sex with women in his orbit ... and allegedly filmed a lot of those encounters. There are new Jane Does sprinkled in the filing as well, BTW ... on top of the ones he's already alleged to have trafficked.

The McDonald's thing is interesting ... we know he's a fan of the Golden Arches. He went there for after posting bail and (temporarily) being sprung from jail more than 2 years ago.

Anyway, there are even more accusations the federal government wants permission to support with new evidence it says it's obtained ... including the claim that someone on R. Kelly's team successfully bribed a Cook County official for inside info on the case back in 2019.

Allegedly, that CC official took $2,500 from this Kelly team member ... as well as a burner phone so they could communicate. The official is said to be a clerk ... but is unnamed.

A judge has yet to rule on what Uncle Sam wants -- namely, to submit this new evidence they say they have, to have it looked over, which they hope leads to even further charges filed against the singer. This trial is supposed to get underway in about 4 weeks.

R. Kelly has other legal trouble in other states ... but the federal case seems to be the one that'll get started first. He's been given more time to secure and confer with new attorneys in the wake of much of his old legal team jumping ship in the past several months.

The Wisconsin police department that had one of their own accused of planting drugs in a Black man's car says the claim is BS -- and they say they got the full video to prove it.

The Caledonia Police Dept. posted an update into their investigation -- which they say isn't done yet -- but based on what they've found so far ... they feel confident saying the officer who was caught on video tossing a baggie into the back seat is being wrongly blamed.

The Chief of Police, Christopher Botsch, says the car was pulled over for speeding in a 45 MPH zone, and after the front seat passenger refused to ID himself -- and finding the rear passengers weren't wearing seat belts -- the cops apparently decided to conduct a search.

CPD uploaded portions of two body cameras from what appears to be 2 different officers -- the first shows the cop in question being handed a little baggie -- which the department says was an empty "corner tear" -- by another officer who was checking it out and then going back to the car and throwing it back in ... which is where the OG video picks up.

The police say that little baggie -- which, again, they say was not illegal in and of itself since it was empty, albeit indicative of drugs -- was found when they searched one of the rear passengers, something they say you can see in a second body cam video they uploaded.

Since there was nothing in it, CPD says the cop essentially discarded it back into the car, which they say probably wasn't a great idea, but note ... nothing sketchy happened. Their video also shows the convo that happened after ... something GlockBoy Savoo's didn't.

Caledonia Police say there's over 6 hours of footage to review since there were four officers present -- so they say they're gonna need more time to get the full picture. However, they reiterate that thus far ... it doesn't appear as if anything criminal was done -- on either end.

Shaun Weiss, the goalie in the 'Mighty Ducks' movies, got all nostalgic celebrating his graduation from a drug court program ... chowing down at a diner that's special to him.

Just days after getting his certificate of completion from the D.A.'s Office in Yuba County, CA ... we're told Shaun and his good friend, Drew Gallagher, hit up the super-popular Brent's Deli in the San Fernando Valley.

Why there? Well, for starters the pastrami is to die for ... but also, we're told the deli's the first place Shaun went when he was released from jail in August 2017 during one of the worst points in his life.

Shaun's had several stints in jail after that, but in going back now, he wanted to reminisce on all the progress he's made ever since.

His pal Drew practically rolled out a red carpet ... showering Shaun with congratulatory balloons and a hearty meal of matzo ball soup.

TMZ broke the story ... The D.A.'s Office was super complimentary of Shaun for staying on the straight and narrow -- and that good behavior prompted prosecutors to dismiss the burglary case against him.

Besides getting sober, Shaun also got a new set of chompers.

Now, this is weird -- a Black man caught a cop on camera apparently tossing a baggie of drugs into his car ... but the police department in question is saying there may be more than meets the eye here.

A guy who goes by GlockBoy Savoo on Facebook -- who appears to be a musician of some sort under a label called TrechKids -- posted this video that's now going viral. It shows what appears to be a traffic stop underway in a car that Savoo is in ... and captures an eyebrow-raising moment.

You see a police officer -- who has since been identified as belonging to Caledonia PD out of Wisconsin -- approaching the car and quickly tossing something into the back seat. The photog, who appears to be Savoo, questions what it was ... and the cop kinda plays dumb.

The camera man jumps to the back seat for a close-up shot of what it is ... and it looks like a little baggie, indicative of drugs. It's a quick 16-second clip, and you can't see what happened after or before this strange moment. On its face ... it looks kinda sketchy.

Savoo is flat-out accusing this officer of what sounds like planting drugs on him as a way to get probable cause to search the rest of the vehicle. He writes, "First time ever seeing a cop try to throw sum on me just to get reason to search the car💯 he ain’t even know I was recording 💯 you can tell he was nervous 💯." Caledonia PD has another POV.

This what they have to say ... the cop does appear to be one of their own, and they've located the report for this incident. They're doing a full investigation as well into the insinuation something was planted -- including pulling body cam footage, dash cam video and testimony from this officer as well as others on the scene. They say it'll take some time.

Here's the first look at Derek Chauvin behind bars since he was sentenced for murdering George Floyd, and he looks ... well, sleepy with a measure of defiance.

TMZ's obtained Chauvin's first mug shot in prison ... a place he'll call home as he serves his 22.5-year sentence. He kept a stiff upper lip as he mugged for the camera in his orange standard issue. He also looks like he's struggling to keep his eyes open ... he looks out of it.

We're told the Minnesota Department of Corrections snapped the new mug shot June 28 ... just 5 days after his sentencing.

As you know ... Chauvin was found guilty of 2nd-degree unintentional murder, 3rd-degree murder and 2nd-degree manslaughter ... but the 2nd-degree conviction is what sticks.

The bizarre tale of 2 former "Big Brother" winners who once worked together in the "chill town" alliance before one was found guilty of stalking the other has seemingly come to an end ... with the convicted stalker being ordered to pay significant restitution.

Mike "Boogie" Malin -- who won Season 7 of the reality series -- has been ordered to pay Season 2 winner, Dr. Will Kirby $23,219 plus 10 percent interest. He must also pay Kirby's attorney to the tune of $20,745.

ICYMI ... Malin was found guilty of felony stalking his former 'BB' buddy last month, after pleading no contest. Boogie was sentenced to 2 years probation.

Kirby got a restraining order against Malin in 2019 after the 2 were tapped to go on another reality show as a duo. When Kirby declined, it meant Malin could not participate, and that's allegedly when he began sending threats to Kirby and his family.

Trevor Bauer and his attorney showed up to an L.A. courtroom Friday ... making it clear they're ready to fight the pitcher's assault accuser's allegations.

Bauer -- wearing a purple suit, pink shirt and tie -- showed up just prior to the morning proceedings. His accuser was also in court.

During the hearing -- which was scheduled in order to determine if a temporary restraining order against Bauer should turn into a permanent one -- Bauer's attorney said they want to call 3-4 witnesses to support his case.

Meanwhile, Bauer's accuser -- through her attorney -- said they would like to call around six witnesses to show why the restraining order should be granted.

The parties estimated a hearing on the matter would take around 2 days.

The hearing is expected to begin after a lunch break later Friday afternoon.

As we previously reported, Bauer's accuser got the temporary restraining order in late June ... after she said in court docs the MLB star was violent with her during two sexual encounters in April and May.

In the docs, the woman claimed Bauer choked her unconscious and punched her repeatedly ... leaving her with black eyes, bruises, scrapes and scratches.

The 30-year-old pitcher and his reps have denied the allegations ... claiming the incidents were part of 2 entirely consensual sexual encounters.

Police and the MLB are conducting investigations into the claims. Bauer -- who's been on administrative leave and away from the Dodgers' mound since the allegations -- has not been arrested nor has he been charged.

It's unknown if Bauer plans on testifying during the hearing.

Jen Shah's fraud case just went from bad to worse, because the feds have lumped her into a group of suspects with "greater culpability" in the telemarketing scheme that allegedly targeted elderly people ... and accuse her of being one of the leaders of it.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star is one of 6 people in the U.S. Attorney's "Tier A" category for the alleged crimes.

The prosecutor claims these people -- 2 of which have already been sentenced to 78 months and 60 months in prison in the case -- were more "senior participants" in the scheme and continued to participate in it even when they knew criminal charges could be coming.

The U.S Attorney says the Tier A suspects were "responsible for orchestrating the broader scheme" and that Shah specifically "obtained leads directly from lead sources and provided them to, among others, coaching sales floors operated in Utah and Nevada."

Shah and her assistant, Stuart Smith, are also accused of owning and operating a sales floor in Manhattan that was a major part of the alleged telemarketing scheme ... and Smith is in Tier A as well.

As we reported ... Shah was arrested in late March for allegedly targeting and scamming people -- "vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people" -- out of their money.

She pled not guilty and was released on strict conditions.

We reached out to Jen's attorney ... no word back.

Fredo Bang's been arrested in Miami -- where he lives -- on a fugitive warrant out of Louisiana -- where he hails from .. TMZ has learned.

The rapper was picked up Thursday and booked in the Miami-Dade County jail, though it's unclear what he's accused of in his home state.

Fredo's scheduled to perform Friday at the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Miami Gardens, but it seems he might have other plans now ... like being extradited.

His arrest comes just a day after one of his fellow rappers, Lit Yoshi, was also arrested in Miami on a Louisiana warrant. Yoshi's wanted on an attempted murder charge in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.

Both rappers are part of the hip-hop group called Top Boy Gorilla, and Fredo has a well-known beef with NBA YoungBoy.

In fact, authorities believe the 2019 shooting of YoungBoy at the Trump Beach Resort near Miami is possibly linked to members of Top Boy Gorilla ... but so far, no charges have been filed.

Dr. Alex Khadavi -- a famous cosmetic dermatologist in L.A. -- allegedly went on a homophobic tirade about his neighbors, threatening to "blow their f***ing heads off" ... and his rant was captured on security footage.

The video, obtained by TMZ, is from Khadavi's condo complex in West Hollywood, and it shows him approaching the front desk concierge in a hostile manner while ranting about people who live in the building ... referring to them with the homophobic f-word.

He goes on to say he'll shoot these people and later threatens to kill them ... before taking his dog outside. When Khadavi returns to the lobby, he continues yelling at the front desk guy.

According to legal docs ... this incident went down on July 7, and resulted in one of Khadavi's neighbors -- who is a gay man -- filing for a restraining order against Khadavi for himself and his husband.

In the docs, the neighbor claims the concierge told him Khadavi made threats about killing gay people, and specifically asked about him and his husband and implied he was going to kill them.

The concierge also claims that 2 months before this incident ... Khadavi showed him a handgun he was carrying while taking his dog for a walk. The neighbors say they fear for their lives.

This is not the first time Dr. Khadavi has been in the news for something like this. We broke the story ... the 'Million Dollar Listing' guys got a restraining order against him back in 2016, claiming he made death threats and anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist comments.

Khadavi has had many famous celeb clients over the years, including Scott Disick and Lance Bass.

Ex-Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks is cleared to resume his football career -- the NFLer was just sentenced to one day behind bars in his insider trading case on Thursday.

The 30-year-old pled guilty in 2018 for handing over cash and NFL tickets to a Goldman Sachs analyst for private info that made him $1.2 million in profit ... and was facing up to 25 years in prison.

After sentencing was pushed back multiple times in 2019 and 2020, Kendricks finally learned his fate -- according to FOX NFL's Jay Glazer, he was handed one day in jail, 3 years supervised release, a $100k fine and 300 community service hours.

The sentence means Kendricks is able to resume his NFL career as early as tomorrow.

The former linebacker has been in the league since 2012 -- logging in 19 sacks, 7 forced fumbles and 4 interceptions ... plus winning the Super Bowl in 2018 with the Eagles.

"I know you could scold my ass, and I know you could really, really help me out and, just -- please, sir!"

Arizona Cardinals linebacker Zaven Collins -- a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft -- begged cops over and over again to not arrest him during a speeding stop in Scottsdale, Ariz. last month ... and the entire incident was captured on police video.

In the footage, obtained by TMZ Sports, cops pulled over Collins and told him they were stopping him because they said he was going a staggering 76 MPH in a 35 MPH zone.

Collins was surprised to hear the number ... and told one of the officers, "Nah, I was not going that fast," before adding, "I apologize."

Collins then explained he plays for the Cards while handing over his ID.

The officers eventually placed Collins in cuffs ... and after they told him they were arresting him for excessive speed and reckless driving -- the 22-year-old football player began pleading with them to let him go.

"There's no reason for this," Collins said. "Are you serious?"

Collins then begged some more to the officers ... adding, "I've been cool. I've been chill. Can you please? Please, sir?"

Collins was ultimately placed in the back of a squad car ... and he tried one last time to get out of the arrest there.

"I know I sped a little bit, sir," Collins said ... "I'm just saying, can you help, like, please? Just show a little bit of love. Please. God bless. Please."

Unfortunately for the football player, he was still booked and later charged with 1 count of exceeding the speed limit and 1 count of reckless driving.

Collins' case is still playing in the court system. His next hearing is slated for late August.

Rachel Uchitel says Seeking Arrangement dropped her like a bad habit as spokesperson for the dating site in the wake of the Matt Gatez scandal ... so she claims in a new lawsuit.

Tiger Woods' ex-mistress filed legal docs claiming Seeking Arrangement terminated her contract as the company's mouthpiece just 3 months into the deal ... claiming it only happened because the company ran scared after the congressman from Florida was linked to the dating service.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Uchitel says she and Seeking Arrangement entered into a 6-month deal back in February to be the company's spokesperson. She says the deal called for $20k per month in return for de-stigmatizing the sugar daddy concept.

Uchitel says she did her job just fine ... and got paid the first few months. But, then came Gaetz's investigation by the feds over allegations he paid young women for sexual encounters with an underage female ... linking him with Seeking Arrangement and alleging he's a member of the site.

Uchitel says she had no connection to Gaetz, and the honchos at Seeking Arrangement told her to stay mum on Gaetz during interviews. She says she was told the scandal was "a very serious crisis for the company."

She says the CEO asked her to get 4 young women who used the site to make videos attesting that the site wasn't exploiting them. She says she followed orders but was then told the company was going through a re-branding and that required terminating her contract.

Uchitel says 6 days after terminating her contract the company came back to her and said they would pay her in full if she signed an NDA.  Uchitel told them to pound sand, presumably because she didn't want in any way to become part of the Gaetz scandal.

She's suing Seeking Arrangement for the balance owed, along with damages for tarnishing her reputation. She also wants money for emotional distress.