Rape investigation of David Copperfield closed; no charges filed
SEATTLE — Federal prosecutors have closed a two-year investigation into rape allegations against magician David Copperfield without filing charges.
The notice came in a brief court document filed today by Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Roe.
The allegations came to light after an FBI raid on Copperfield’s Las Vegas warehouse in October 2007. The raid was highly publicized, but the specifics of the allegations weren’t revealed until months later, when the woman who made the complaint filed a civil lawsuit.
The woman, a former Miss Washington contestant, said in the civil suit that she met Copperfield, whose real name is David Kotkin, during a performance in Kennewick, Wash., and was invited to visit his private island in the Bahamas in July 2007.
The woman claimed that once she arrived, Copperfield sexually assaulted her.
The illusionist’s lawyers said he denied the allegations and called the lawsuit “extortion for money, plain and simple.”
In a November interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Copperfield’s only direct comment was to name the Web site Copperfieldsetstherecordstraight.com, which rebuts the allegations in the lawsuit.
“I’d love to (comment), trust me,” he said, adding that in a larger context, “I’m just a target for that. Unfortunately, the court allows that kind of thing to come out.”
The Web site claims that the woman “has a history of lying” and that “the notion that this woman was trapped on the island is absurd.”
“Among the people she met was a female live-in island manager, who spent time with her on the island and told her that if she needed anything to just call,” according to the Web site.
“She never complained to anyone about her treatment, never showed any signs of distress and no one on the island saw her with scratches, bruises or any other signs of assault. That’s because nothing of the sort ever happened.”
Copperfield is a part-year Las Vegas headliner and maintains an apartment at the warehouse he has owned since 1991 at Russell Road near the Strip.
Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Mike Weatherford contributed to this report.
