Nearly three years after a former Miss Washington USA claimed she was raped by David Copperfield on his private island in the Bahamas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington filed documents Tuesday stating they are essentially dropping the case.
Prosecutors offered no explanation as to what they found during their investigation or why the case has been dropped. No charges were ever filed against Copperfield. Representatives for the magician have alleged that the woman was untruthful, and that he never forced himself on her.
“We filed a notice today that we had terminated the grand jury inquiry,” Emily Langlie, a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman.
The victim has also filed a civil lawsuit against the magician. That case was filed last July and put on hold two months ago to allow the criminal investigation to run its course. The investigation went public over two years ago, when law enforcement officials conducted searches at Copperfield’s property warehouse and magic museum in Las Vegas.
The closing of the criminal investigation does not necessarily mean the end of a civil lawsuit – although it certainly weakens the plaintiff’s case. Criminal court and civil court use two different legal standards – “beyond a reasonable doubt” is a much higher hurdle to clear than “preponderance of the evidence”, which basically means that the jury must believe that it is more likely than not that defendant did whatever the plaintiff alleges.
We shall see…
