Michael Irvin refiles $100M Marriott lawsuit, plays surveillance video
SHERMAN, Texas - Weeks after Cowboys Hall of Famer Michael Irvin was pulled off Super Bowl coverage we are seeing video of the alleged unwanted advances in the Phoenix Marriott Hotel for the first time.
"Here's the truth. We used to say when we played football ‘the eye in the sky don’t tell no lie', it's just the truth," Irvin said Tuesday. "We talk and tell lies, but the eye in the sky don't tell no lie."
The video played at the news conference Tuesday does not have any audio of the conversation between the two and no clear images of facial expressions.
It shows Irvin walking in with multiple people, as he gets closer to the bar he starts talking to a Marriott employee who said he made sexually inappropriate comments.
To the left of Irvin and the woman is another employee. He clapped his hands when the woman initially approached Irvin and then he put his hands on his hips.
Irvin and the woman move more into the lobby and continue talking.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Michael Irvin denies Super Bowl hotel misconduct allegations
The conversation lasts for about two minutes.
Irvin touches the woman's arm, then seconds later he does it again.
Irvin's lawyer says they were joking.
You can see the woman put her hands up, but it is unclear what was said.
In a court filing last Friday, Marriott said Irvin made unwelcome sexual advances toward a female employee.
The documents say that on Feb. 5 at the Renaissance Phoenix Hotel, Irvin "appeared to be visibly intoxicated," In conversation with the female staffer, asked a lewd question about intercourse with a Black man.
"I don't speak like that. I've never spoken like that," Irvin said on Tuesday. "I totally deny saying that."
At the end of the conversation the two shake hands.
The woman walks to the bar and walks out of the camera shot with an employee.
Marriott claims Irvin leered at the woman and turned to an employee allegedly saying "she bad, she bad" followed by a sexual remark and slapped himself in the face three times. You can see him slapping himself in the surveillance video.
Irvin then walks near the door with someone his lawyers say is a hotel employee and takes a selfie.
Irvin team refiled his $100 million dollar defamation lawsuit against Marriott and a hotel employee, moving the case from Texas to Arizona.
Marriott previously filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit claiming that the case did not have jurisdiction in Texas, considering the event happened in Arizona.
"Maybe they believe the state court will be more favorable. There is still a possibility in Arizona it could be moved to a federal court," said Russell Wilson, an attorney not associated with the case. "The video helps demonstrate that there is not the sexual conduct we would normally associate with, for example, groping, touching in the private areas, things like that are not shown in the video. It does show interaction and touching, so the questions becomes what are the words during that interaction and touching."
Despite the video, Wilson says this remains a "he said, she said" case.
Irvin's legal team says they feel the release of the video makes their case stronger.
"Any rational person can see that this is a setup or an after the fact invention or something to try to cover why that guy up there is mad," said Irvin's attorney Levi McCathern.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Michael Irvin pulled from Super Bowl coverage after woman’s complaint
Wilson tells FOX 4 most civil lawsuits end in settlement.
Irvin said Tuesday he misses the people he works with and that he didn't know if or when he would return.