SEATTLE, Wash. — A federal judge has issued a six-month stay in a civil lawsuit filed against David Copperfield, who is accused of raping a former Miss Washington USA contestant.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour stayed the case at the request of Copperfield so the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle can complete a criminal investigation into the charge, the Seattle Times reports.
Copperfield (real name: David Seth Kotkin) said he was being placed in the untenable legal position of having to provide information in the civil case that could be used against him should there be criminal prosecution. Lawyers for the illusionist argued that their client might have to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination in the civil case, the Times said.
The plantiff's attorney, Becky Roe, agreed to the stay, saying her client has already waited two years.
The woman, who is in her early 20s, filed the lawsuit on July 29 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, meeting the deadline for a two-year statute of limitations. In her suit, the Seattle resident claims Copperfield sexually assaulted and threatened her while she was a guest on his private island in the Bahamas. She says she met Copperfield during a January 2007 performance in Kennewick, in which he called her on stage.
Prosecutors have said they are nearly finished with their investigation and will make a decision on whether to file criminal charges against Copperfield in the next six months.
His attorneys, Angelo Calfo and Patty Eakes, have denied the allegations, saying that the lawsuit is "extortion for money, plain and simple."
A status hearing for the case has been scheduled for March.
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