Woman Cowboys QB Dak Prescott accuses of extortion intends to pursue a criminal case
The woman who alleges Dak Prescott sexually assaulted her in 2017 intends to pursue a criminal case against the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, her attorneys said Tuesday.
“There’s many different things that we plan to sue Dak for related to this matter,” Yoel Zehaie told “GBag Nation” on The Fan 105.3 FM. “And we have a lot to work with on both the civil aspect and the criminal aspect.”
Zehaie declined to speak about what the other lawsuits could involve, but said they are “imminent.”
Prescott filed an 11-page lawsuit in Collin County on Monday against Victoria Shores of Fort Worth and her attorneys, Yoel Zehaie and Bethel Zehaie, saying she is trying to extort $100 million from him to settle a claim for sexual assault from 2017.
The lawsuit is based on a letter he received on Jan. 16, alleging that he sexually assaulted Shores in February 2017.
According to the letter, Shores would be “willing to forego pursuing criminal charges, along with disclosing this information to the public, in exchange for compensating her for the mental anguish she has suffered.”
Shores’ damages were valued at $100 million.
Prescott denied the sexual assault claim in a text to the Star-Telegram on Monday.
“She is trying to get $100 million from me to ‘not report’ a rape case I obviously did not do,” Prescott said in the text.
In a statement, Prescott’s attorney Levi McCathern called the allegations against his client “an extortion plot.”
Zehaie told The Fan that they were surprised when they learned of Prescott’s extortion lawsuit, but called it a “classic” move to discredit the victim. According to Zehaie, the letter they sent Prescott was a demand letter and a common practice in civil cases.
“There’s nothing extortionist about it,” Zehaie told the radio station. “But we’re just very disappointed that he would try to flip the script and make himself the victim.”
McCathern told the Star-Telegram in an email Tuesday that the letter from Shores and her attorneys was the first correspondence Prescott had received about the allegations, and Prescott took the letter to law enforcement.
According to McCathern, Prescott and Shores were never in a relationship but “they knew each other both before and after the alleged assault.
“She never mentioned that she felt any of his behavior was inappropriate,” McCathern said.
Prescott and Shores did spend time together in a group setting the day the assault supposedly occurred, McCathern said.
Zehaie told The Fan it often takes sexual assault victims time to speak out, and Prescott’s popularity made it even more difficult for Shores to come forward.
“We’re talking about Dak Prescott,” Zehaie said. “We’re talking about the quarterback of America’s team. So now you add even more layers into the fear element of the victim, you know, ‘Are they going to believe me?’”
Zehaie told The Fan that Shores approached the attorneys a few months ago, and once they figured out who to contact they reached out to Prescott immediately.
According to Zehaie, the amount of $100 million that Shores asked for isn’t excessive when you consider what’s at stake.
“What’s the price that you can put on a rape?” Zehaie said to The Fan. “The trauma that comes from that? The humiliation that comes from that? There is not a price tag you can put on that.”
Prescott’s lawsuit against Shores and her attorneys asks for over $1 million in damages, but McCathern told the Star-Telegram that Prescott “isn’t seeking any money.”
You just have to plead an amount,” McCathern said. “If he does recover any money it will all be donated to a charity that supports real survivors of sexual abuse.”
The NFL told the Star-Telegram that its is aware of Prescott’s pending litigation and has no comment.
A Cowboys source told the Star-Telegram that the situation isn’t a factor in the pending negations on a possible contract extension.
Clarence Hill contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 12, 2024 at 5:16 PM.
