Josh Jackson, ex-Suns first-rounder and former Kansas star, accused of rape, battery in lawsuit
Warning: The following article contains descriptions of alleged graphic sexual assault.
Josh Jackson, the former Kansas star and 2017 first-round draft pick for the Phoenix Suns, has been accused of sexual assault, battery, and orchestrating an armed robbery in a federal lawsuit brought by a woman identified only as Jane Doe.
According to the suit, which was viewed by the Kansas City Star, Doe and Jackson met at a Super Bowl after party in New York City in February 2022. The party was thrown by then-Brooklyn Nets player Andre Drummond, who invited Doe because she had a “romantic interest” in Jackson. The two exchanged phone numbers while Doe was seeking help looking for her lost phone, and then went to a nightclub with others to continue to party.
Per the lawsuit, Doe went home, but shortly after received a text message from Jackson offering her $1,500 to come and see him, according to the suit. She told her attorney that she didn’t accept the $1,500, but when Jackson sent her an Uber so she could get to where he was, she took it, saying she thought the party was still happening.
But there was no party, according to the suit. Doe alleges Jackson was alone, and said she told him that she was “not there for sex” and wasn’t a “gold-digger” when he tried to impress her. After an evening of drinking, Doe eventually fell asleep on the bed facing away from Jackson. However, she says she woke up after Jackson allegedly “ripped open” her clothes and raped her. She cried for him to stop, and eventually “passing out from the trauma, confusion and horror of the rape,” according to the suit.
Doe ran out of the room the next morning and bought an emergency contraception pill before returning to her apartment. A short time later, the suit says, she began getting threatening messages from several unknown phone numbers accusing her of stealing a watch and claiming they knew where she lived. While in the middle of a nap later that day, she heard the sound of her locked front door opening, and was suddenly confronted by two hoodie-wearing women, one holding what appeared to be a gun, who threatened to kill her. The women were tackled by building security and arrested by the NYPD. Doe alleges that Jackson orchestrated the robbery.
The suit Jane Doe has brought against Jackson is a civil suit and does not involve criminal charges. She is seeking damages from Jackson and the two women who were caught by security while they were robbing her. Jackson has “emphatically” denied all the charges through his lawyer.
While this is a civil suit, there is a police report that matches the basic details of Doe’s description in the lawsuit, though some aspects are different. In June, the KC Star viewed a police report that was submitted in New York for an alleged rape that took place in the same hotel on the same day. The woman told police that she arrived at the suspect’s hotel room after drinking alcohol and couldn’t remember what happened after. When she woke up the next morning, all of her clothes were off and she was in bed next to the suspect. When he tried to get on top of her, she pushed him off, got dressed, and left. The KC Star noted that “believes she may be the victim of a sexual assault,” was written on the police report.
Jackson, 26, was picked fourth overall by the Suns in the 2017 draft following just a single year at KU. However, he was never able to realize the potential the Suns believed he had. Phoenix traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies after just two years, and from there he spent time with the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings. He signed with the Kings’ G League team in January 2023, but was waived four days later and is currently a free agent.
This is not the first time Jackson has had legal issues. In 2019 he was arrested for resisting an officer and accused of using marijuana around his infant daughter. Two years earlier he was arrested for allegedly vandalizing a car belonging to a member of the KU women’s basketball team, but was entered into a diversion program and had to complete an anger management course.