Magician David Copperfield is accused of drugging and raping a 17-year-old aspiring model in 1988, TheWrap reports.
Brittney Lewis claims that she met Copperfield at a modeling contest in 1988 when she was still a minor and he was one of the judges and a 32-year-old superstar illusionist.
After the contest, she returned home to Utah and then received an invitation from Copperfield to attend one of his shows. After reassuring the young woman’s grandmother (her guardian at the time) that she “would be accompanied at all times” and have a separate hotel room, the trip was approved.
Once she arrived, Lewis claims Copperfield took her shopping and introduced her around. She was not interested in any kind of romance with Copperfield. When he tried to hold her hand, she told TheWrap, she told him they were “just friends.”
The trip that “started splendidly” went horribly wrong after the show, according to Lewis. At the bar, she claims she “noticed him pouring something into her glass.”
“What are you doing?” she asked. She claims his reply was, “Oh, I’m just sharing.”
Lewis alleges that just a few sips of the drink and she blacked out. From here, she only remembers flashes of what she claims happened next:
…mostly flashes of herself being carried out to a cab, and him inside her hotel room wearing a black robe with shoulder pads. She said she remembers him on top of her, kissing her, and his breath smelling bad. She said her room was connected to his by a door.
“I remember my clothes being taken off,” she said. “He was kissing my face and then I remember him starting to go down on my body with his face, and then, as soon as he started going down, I just completely blacked out.”
The next morning, she said, she woke up feeling sick and nauseated. Copperfield came in through the connecting door shortly after, she said.
“He wanted to me know that nothing happened because I was underage,” she said. “He said: ‘I didn’t enter you.’”
“There was no fluid but he could have had a condom,” she added.
Before she left to go home the next day, Lewis claims Copperfield “made her write a letter saying she was okay.”
In 2007, Copperfield was accused of sexually assaulting a beauty queen. After a two-year investigation that included an FBI raid of his home, the case was dropped and his accuser, Lacey Carroll, dropped her civil suit. In 2010, Lacey was charged with making false sexual assault allegations in a separate incident that authorities say also included prostitution. She eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was let off with a fine and community service.
Lewis says that when she heard about the 2007 allegation, she went to the FBI to tell them her story. The FBI declined comment to TheWrap.
TheWrap report that “Lewis’ best friend from high school, husband, ex-husband, and grandmother” all confirmed that Lewis told them about the Copperfield story decades ago.
Copperfield, who denied all wrongdoing in the 2007 case, released a statement regarding these latest allegations via Twitter. While he says he supports the #MeToo movement, he is also asking everyone not to “rush to judgment.”
TheWrap says Lewis is not seeking money or legal action.
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