David Copperfield Sex Assault Lawsuit - August 20, 2009David Copperfield Sex Assault Lawsuit
Seattle woman claims magician attacked her on private Bahama island
AUGUST 20--A Seattle woman alleges that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by David Copperfield after being lured in mid-2007 to the magician's private island in the Bahamas. In a tawdry personal injury lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Washington, the 22-year-old woman accused Copperfield of a series of attacks and claimed that the 52-year-old entertainer twice threatened to harm her. Copperfield has denied her allegations, and his lawyers have termed the federal lawsuit an "extortion for money, plain and simple." TSG is not identifying the woman, whose name is included in the lawsuit, since she is an alleged victim of a sexual assault. According to the complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, the woman, a fashion model and former beauty pageant contestant, met Copperfield at a January 2007 magic show. After the performance, she was ushered backstage to meet Copperfield, and was later invited to visit his island retreat (the woman contends that she thought the Bahamian trip would involve her performing modeling and promotional activities). According to the lawsuit, after returning from the Bahamas, the woman told her family about the alleged assaults, sought treatment at a local hospital's sexual assault and trauma section, and contacted Seattle police. Her complaint notes that "the FBI initiated an investigation, which is pending." In late-2007, FBI agents executed two search warrants in Las Vegas in connection with the bureau's probe of Copperfield. The raids targeted a warehouse used by the magician, as well as the MGM Grand Hotel theater in which Copperfield performed. In response to the woman's July 29 lawsuit--which was filed just before the two-year statute of limitations expired--Copperfield & Co. last week registered davidcopperfieldsetstherecordstraight.com, which claims the female accuser "has a history of lying." (8 pages)