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)
August 24, 2009
'HE'S GOT THE MAGIC HANDS, MAMA' David Copperfield Sex Assault Lawsuit - August 20, 2009
$4.6 million buys EBay bidder eternity with Marilyn Monroe | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times
$4.6 million buys EBay bidder eternity with Marilyn Monroe | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times$4.6 million buys EBay bidder eternity with Marilyn Monroe
August 24, 2009 | 12:38 pm
Marilyn Monroe, who's been dead 47 years, still carries enough cachet that the crypt above where she was entombed was sold today on EBay for $4,602,100.
Elsie Poncher, whose husband Richard Poncher is buried in the crypt at Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park, said she wanted to sell it to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.
If the winning bid turns out to be legitimate, she will be able to do a lot more than that.
The bidding started at $500,000 on Aug. 14 and escalated to $1 million two days later. There were 21 bids.
Richard Poncher, a businessman who owned a number of companies, died 23 years ago at age 81. According to Elsie, Richard Poncher bought the crypt from New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio when he was in the midst of his divorce from the blond sex symbol in 1954.
The couple were at the Regency Hotel in New York when DiMaggio asked her husband, "You want to buy two crypts?"Richard Poncher bought the one above Monroe, where he is -- for the moment -- entombed, and one next to it, where his widow is supposed to spend eternity.
“To the man who gave us everything and more," says the plaque on Richard Poncher’s crypt.
Elsie Poncher plans to move her husband’s remains to the crypt designated for her, and when the time comes, she’ll be cremated.
She said that when her husband was dying, he made a request. "He said, ’If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.’ "
Right after the funeral, Elsie said, she conveyed her husband’s wish to the funeral director. "I was standing right there, and he turned him over," she said.
The cemetery, which is hidden away off Glendon Avenue, is the final resting spot for many celebrities, among them Natalie Wood, Dean Martin, Rodney Dangerfield, Merv Griffin, Mel Torme, Truman Capote and -- most recently -- Farrah Fawcett.
Playboy’s Hugh Hefner bought the crypt next to Monroe’s in 1992 for $75,000. There is an empty crypt in the Corridor of Memories mausoleum where Monroe and Richard Poncher are entombed that the cemetery is selling for $250,000.
Steve Miller, the mortgage broker and banker who is representing Elsie Poncher, said some of the e-mails he has received have been on the bizarre side.
“I get comments from people thinking [Richard Poncher’s] rising from the dead,” Miller said. “You can’t believe the stuff I’m getting here.”
-- Jeff Gottlieb
Photo: Elsie Poncher blows a kiss at her husband's crypt in Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park. Proceeds from the crypt's sale will help pay off her mortgage. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times
[Updated] Lethal levels of propofol found in Michael Jackson's body - Interactive timeline: Michael Jackson | 1958-2009 | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times
Lethal levels of propofol found in Michael Jackson's body, affidavit says [Updated] | L.A. Now | Los Angeles TimesL.A. Now
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Lethal levels of propofol found in Michael Jackson's body, affidavit says [Updated]
August 24, 2009 | 12:00 pm
L.A. County coroner's officials found lethal levels of the powerful anesthetic propofol after examining Michael Jackson's body, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed today in Houston.
According to the search warrant, Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, told detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department that he had been treating Jackson for insomnia for about six weeks. He had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol every night using an intravenous line, according to the court records.
But Murray told detectives that he feared Jackson was forming an addiction and began trying to wean the pop star off the drugs. He lowered the dosage to 25 milligrams and mixed it with two other sedatives, lorazepam and midazolam. On June 23, two days before Jackson's death, he administered those two medications and withheld the propofol.
On the morning Jackson died, Murray tried to induce sleep without using propofol, according to the affidavit. He said he gave Jackson valium at 1:30 a.m. When that didn't work, he said, he injected lorazepam intravenously at 2 a.m. At 3 a.m., when Jackson was still awake, Murray administered midazolam.
Over the next few hours, Murray said he gave Jackson various drugs. Then at 10:40 a.m., Murray administered 25 milligrams of propofol after Jackson repeatedly demanded the drug, according to the court records.
[Updated at 12:45 p.m.: Although Murray acknowledged to police that he administered propofol, authorities said they could find no evidence that he had purchased, ordered or obtained the medication under his medical license or Drug Enforcement Administration tracking number. However, police detectives saw about eight bottles of propofol in the house along with other vials and pills that had been prescribed to Jackson by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger.
Other drugs that were confiscated in the search included valium, tamsulosin, lorazepam, temazepam, clonazepam, trazodone and tizanidine. They also found propofol in Murray’s medical bag. Murray told detectives that he was not the first doctor to administer the powerful anesthetic to Jackson.
At least two unidentified doctors gave Jackson propofol in Germany. Between March and April 2009, Murray said he called Las Vegas doctor David Adams at Jackson’s request to arrange for Adams to administer propofol. Murray said he was present at a cosmetologist’s office, where Adams used propofol to sedate Jackson. Since he began treating Jackson, Murray said he repeatedly asked the pop star what other physicians were treating Jackson and what drugs they were prescribing. But Jackson declined to provide the information, Murray told authorities.
Murray said he noticed injection marks on Jackson’s hands and feet. When he asked Jackson about them, the pop star told him he had been given a “cocktail” to help him. In addition to Murray, authorities subpoenaed medical records from Dr. Arnold Klein, Dr. Allan Metzger and Dr. David Adams, the affidavit states. They also asked for medical records from Dr. David Slavitt, who conducted the independent medical examination of Jackson for Anschuntz Entertainment Group, Dr. Randy Rosen and nurse practitioner Cherilyn Lee. They also subpoenaed records from Dr. Mark Tadrissi, who stored medical records with Adams. ]
Murray has already acknowledged obtaining and administering propofol to Jackson the morning that the pop star died. In an interview with police, Murray told them that he had left Jackson alone under the influence of the medication to make telephone calls to his Houston office and family members.
When he returned, he discovered Jackson was not breathing. He performed CPR, and one of Jackson’s staff members called 911. The 50-year-old pop star was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center, where he was later declared dead. Much of the investigation has focused on propofol — a drug typically administered by anesthesiologists during surgery — and whether Murray’s decision to give it to Jackson as a sleep aid outside a hospital setting reaches a level of negligence required for an involuntary manslaughter charge.
-- Kimi Yoshino
Photo: Conrad Murray. Credit: AFP / Getty Images
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Seventeen-year-old fashion blogger Jane Aldridge has become a household name among fashion folk for her precocious style and seemingly unlimited budget. She and her mother, Judy Aldridge, have been featured in Vogue and Kanye gives her kudos on his own blog. I personally want to tackle her for her enviable shoe collection. It's next level.
Now, she will be featured in the Fall lookbook for L.A.-based contemporary brand, Simone. The collection is designed by actress Katie Nehra. For more pics and a behind-the-scenes peek at Simone's Fall line, visit Jane's blog, seaofshoes.com.
