English Teacher Comment on Sutton-Wiese Settlement

My English grammar students will recognize the glaring problem with Dan Sutton's lawsuit-closing written apology to Austin Wiese. As KELO reports it, the letter from Sutton to Wiese includes these twelve words:

I apologize for any problems, discomfort or embarrassment this has caused you.

This. What's this? Is it this groping of which Wiese accused Sutton? Is it this legal wrangling? This unpleasant publicity? This apology itself? This long wait for the apology? This color ink the apology is written in?

This in this apology is a pronoun with no clear antecedent. In writing, the word this should always be followed by a noun. A lawyer who paid attention in English class would have slid Sutton's letter back across the table and asked, "This what?"

This sloppy wording is a grammatical evasion of the issue... which is just what settlements where the defendant admits no wrongdoing are about.