Just two days after Richie Incognito tweeted “the truth is going to bury you,” the truth is out, but it doesn’t look like Jonathan Martin is the one who’s going to be buried. The results of the NFL-sanctioned report investigating allegations of misconduct among the Miami Dolphins were released this morning. In his report, investigator Ted Wells concluded that Richie Incognito and two other teammates demonstrated a pattern of harassment against Jonathan Martin and others.
“The Report concludes that three starters on the Dolphins offensive line, Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only Jonathan Martin, but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman and an assistant trainer,” Wells said in a press release. “The Report finds that the assistant trainer repeatedly was the object of racial slurs and other racially derogatory language; that the other offensive lineman was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching; and that Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments.”
He continues, “The Report rejects any suggestion that Martin manufactured claims of abuse after the fact to cover up an impetuous decision to leave the team. Contemporaneous text messages that Martin sent to his parents and others months before he left the Dolphins — which have never before been made public — corroborate his account that the persistent harassment by his teammates caused him significant emotional distress. The Report concludes that the harassment by Martin’s teammates was a contributing factor in his decision to leave the team, but also finds that Martin’s teammates did not intend to drive Martin from the team or cause him lasting emotional injury.”
Wells’s firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, examined thousands of documents since its hiring in November 2013, resulting in a 144-page report.
