The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office has dropped the criminal extortion charge against Vanessa Davies, the 26-year-old woman accused of threatening New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson with a lawsuit alleging rape, kidnapping and beatings unless he paid her millions of dollars. Davies had faced at least one year and as much as 15 years in prison if convicted.
The case, first detailed by NOLA.com, centered on the criminal charge of extortion by threatening to expose a secret. According to the outlet's reporting by Matt Bruce, Davies' criminal file included memos and demand letters her attorneys sent to Williamson's legal team, laying out the allegations she said she would take public if a settlement wasn't reached.
A Relationship That Began in College
Davies and Williamson met in August 2018, according to attorney Gloria Allred, while Davies was a freshman at Shaw College in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The two began dating exclusively that December, per the same account, and Williamson later asked Davies to move to New Orleans after the Pelicans made him the first overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Davies relocated to the city in 2020, and the couple reportedly got engaged in 2024.
Attorney Kristi Schubert, a New Orleans lawyer who has pursued child-molestation cases against Catholic priests, sent Williamson's attorneys a memo on Davies' behalf in July 2024 seeking a settlement of a possible lawsuit. Per the same account, Schubert claimed Williamson used his money, status and physical strength to control and psychologically manipulate Davies, that he violently raped her on several occasions, and that he strangled her multiple times. Allred separately claimed Williamson threatened to kill Davies on multiple occasions.
Williamson's Team Calls It Extortion
Williamson's attorneys countered that the woman began demanding millions of dollars only after the friendship had ended, and they denied the allegations outright. His legal team maintained that he and Davies had a consensual relationship that ended years before any lawsuit was filed. It was that dispute over money that led Williamson's camp to report Davies to law enforcement, resulting in the extortion charge that Orleans Parish prosecutors have now dropped.
Louisiana law defines extortion, under state statute, as communicating threats — including threats to accuse someone of a crime or expose a secret — with the specific intent to obtain money or an advantage, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. The offense carries a potential sentence of one to 15 years, though a 2017 legislative change removed felony extortion from the state's list of violent crimes, altering how sentence credits are earned for those convicted. Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams has, since taking office in January 2021, used prosecutorial discretion to drop cases lacking sufficient evidence or witness cooperation, according to NOLA.com's local reporting on his tenure, though it's not stated whether that broader pattern specifically explains the dismissal in Davies' case.
A Separate Civil Suit Continues in Los Angeles
The criminal case's collapse does not end the legal fight tied to Williamson. In May 2025, a Seattle woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a 12-page civil lawsuit against Williamson in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging a pattern of sexual, physical, emotional and financial abuse spanning 2018 to June 2023. As reported by The Washington Post, the suit sought damages in California on the grounds that multiple alleged assaults occurred in Los Angeles County, including claims that Williamson sexually assaulted Jane Doe twice in Beverly Hills in September and October 2020, confiscated her devices, and made death threats against her and her family.
It remains unclear whether Jane Doe is the same person as Davies, according to NOLA.com's reporting, though the Jane Doe lawsuit mirrored allegations that Davies' attorneys had threatened to lodge against Williamson. Williamson's legal team has said he never dated the plaintiff in that lawsuit, and his attorneys have categorically denied all claims in the May 2025 complaint as reckless and financially motivated. The Lanier Law Firm, representing Jane Doe, said the lawsuit was about establishing accountability rather than seeking publicity, and noted that its client retained new counsel after prior settlement attempts failed.
Pelicans Ownership Weighs In
Pelicans owner Gayle Benson addressed the litigation surrounding her franchise's star player in June 2025, telling WWL-TV that “people can sue you for anything” and expressing confidence in letting the court process play out. It marked the first public comments from Pelicans ownership since Williamson's camp reported his accuser to police.
Allred, who has represented accusers of Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein, Sean “Diddy” Combs and R. Kelly, sent a letter to Williamson on Davies' behalf as part of the settlement push that preceded the criminal charge. The financial stakes surrounding Williamson remain enormous: he signed a five-year rookie maximum contract extension with the Pelicans in July 2022 worth between $193 million and $231 million, depending on All-NBA escalators and guarantee triggers tied to his fitness and games played, per NBC Sports. With the criminal case against Davies now closed, the civil lawsuit in Los Angeles remains the only active legal proceeding tied to the allegations against Williamson.
