Dez Bryant's attorney, Levi McCathern, asserted on Wednesday that the man who recently accused the former NFL star of assault set him up to provoke a confrontation. McCathern stated that 19-year-old Noah Reyes and his friends recognized Bryant and then engaged in reckless driving, cutting Bryant off before braking sharply in front of him.
"Dez didn’t start this," McCathern said in a statement to the California Post regarding the Oct. 25 altercation in Southlake, Texas. "He was targeted by someone who wanted a reaction, and they got one."
McCathern claims that after the initial driving maneuver failed to elicit a response, Reyes threatened to shoot Bryant. He added that multiple witnesses observed Reyes and his companions driving dangerously, endangering others on the road.
Following the incident, Bryant confronted Reyes after both parties had parked outside a restaurant. McCathern argued that Bryant's actions were not criminal, as his client believed he was in danger due to Reyes's threats and reckless behavior. "What is a person supposed to do with that?" McCathern questioned. "Between what Mr. Reyes was saying and what Dez saw him doing, Dez believed he was in real danger."
Video footage captured Bryant shouting at Reyes and later smacking the teen's phone out of his hand. Bryant subsequently received a citation for assault by contact. McCathern suggested the publicly circulated video only presents a partial account of events.
"We believe this was never an accident," McCathern stated. "It was set up to provoke Dez into a public confrontation and create a viral moment, on camera. The video going around doesn’t show the driving, and it doesn’t show the threat. It shows exactly what it was meant to show: the reaction. We said the full story would look very different. It does."
Reyes had previously told The Post that he did nothing wrong and that Bryant was the aggressor. Bryant is scheduled for a court hearing on his assault charge next month.