Shannon Sharpe is facing lawsuits from multiple women who have accused the former NFL star of assault, and an attorney representing him issued a lengthy statement on Friday blasting both accusers.
A woman named Gabriella Zuniga is seeking more than $50 million in damages in a lawsuit she filed against Sharpe in Nevada on Sunday. One of the footnotes in that complaint makes reference to a separate lawsuit that was filed in 2023 by Michele Bundy Evans, who made similar allegations stemming from an alleged incident that took place while she and Sharpe were working at CBS in 2010.
A copy of the lawsuit from Evans was obtained by The U.S. Sun. In it, she says she had been dating Sharpe for more than a decade when the two got into an argument and Sharpe “proceeded to forcefully subdue me, compelling me to my knees and subsequently engaging in non-consensual oral penetration.”
Evans filed a restraining order against Sharpe after the alleged September 2010 incident. Sharpe stepped away from CBS at the time after news of the restraining order came to light. Evans claims Sharpe threatened to “ruin” her career if she spoke about what happened. She filed a defamation suit in 2023 seeking $4 million in damages after claiming Sharpe spoke about the legal issues between the two on the air.
In a statement issued to Larry Brown Sports and other outlets on Friday, Sharpe’s lawyer Mitchell Schuster accused Evans of trying to “crawl out of the woodwork” to profit from a new allegation against Sharpe.
“Sadly, Ms. Evans became obsessed with Shannon and decided to manufacture a claim against him. When she could not find a lawyer to pursue her outrageous story, she filed a civil complaint on her own that is completely devoid of merit,” Schuster wrote. “The fact is that Shannon has had no contact with this person for many years and it is our understanding that she is still on probation after serving 3 years in prison for trying to kill her husband so that she could hopefully pursue a relationship with Shannon.”
Evans spent time in jail over an alleged 2017 domestic incident with her husband, who she claimed had abused her.
Sharpe’s lawyer also took aim at Zuniga.
“Following in Ms. Evan’s footsteps, Gabi a/k/a Karli is the latest person trying to exploit her connection with Shannon. From the onset, Shannon has been crystal clear about the nature of his relationship with Gabi Zuniga. For the sake of clarity, please allow me to repeat his position. Shannon and Gabi engaged in a consensual sexual relationship over a 2-year period,” the statement read. “When she learned that he would not father a child with her, she resorted to extortion. While Shannon was willing to pay her a substantial amount of money to avoid the intimate details of his personal life from being exposed, as many high-profile individuals often do when they are being threatened, that is no longer the case. This is a shakedown, pure and simple and we have the evidence to prove it.”
Sharpe announced on Thursday that he is temporarily stepping away from ESPN, though he maintains he is completely innocent. The lawsuit has involved the public release of a number of explicit text messages, and also led to Zuniga’s Instagram and OnlyFans pages being publicly revealed.
