David Copperfield's Warehouse Raided Amid Rape Allegations
Posted on Fri Oct 19, 2007 at 07:28:25 PM EST
Tags: David Copperfield (all tags)
Update Oct. 21: The FBI denies seizing currency during the search. Follow-up post here.
******
Original Post 10/19
The David Copperfield rape allegation story isn't adding up for me on so many levels.
A Seattle woman has made a rape claim against magician David Copperfield, law enforcement sources tell FOX News. The woman told Seattle police the magician raped her while she was in the Bahamas, sources said. Because the alleged incident happened abroad and the woman did not report it until she returned to the United States, Seattle authorities turned over the case to the FBI.
The F.B.I. raided Copperfield's Las Vegas warehouse, which is more like a museum of his stuff, and seized a camera and $2 million in cash.
What federal crime is being investigated? A rape in the Bahamas is outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. For a rape to go federally, it usually has to occur on an Indian reservation, in a prison or have to do with transporting an underage woman across state lines to commit a sex offense or use of a date rape drug.
Did Copperfield take the woman to the Bahamas? Did he fly her from Seattle to Vegas first and then to the Bahamas? Is that enough to constitute interstate coercion or transporting a woman across state lines for the purpose of committing a sexual offense?
More....
Next question: Why would the FBI seize $2 million of his money? The man makes tens of millions of dollars a year, it's not drug money. Why did they think it was either forfeitable or of evidentiary value? This statute doesn't seem to apply.
Copperfield's attorney, David Chesnoff (who is currently in trial in the Darren Mack case)confirms the investigation and won't discuss the facts, stating only that it's easy to make false allegations against famous people.
Last question for now: If the woman returned to the U.S. without reporting the crime in the Bahamas, it's unlikely she had a timely rape exam. How would the Bahamas or the U.S. prove the charge?
Anyone have any ideas what might really be going on?
Update: I'm still pondering this. Perhaps the money would be relevant if the woman is claiming he offered her $2 million in cash not to go to the authorities. It would then be evidence. But of what? There was no proceeding pending that we know of. But, If there was an attempt to buy her silence after she returned to Seattle, I'm sure the feds could think of a statute that violates. So perhaps it's not the rape, but a cover-up they are investigating.
In order to get the search warrant for the warehouse and the theater where he performs, the feds had to convince a judge there was probable cause to believe evidence of a crime would be located there. I doubt they had pc for evidence of a rape. That they took a computer hard drive, combined with the money, again points to post-event communications in the U.S. and perhaps an attempt to buy silence.
I'm sure there's much more to this intriguing story, which unfortunately for Copperfield, has already made every cable network's news. Should it turn out to be nothing, how will he get his reputation back?
Even if there was an attempted payoff, it may not mean there was a rape. Like Larry Craig, Copperfield may just have looked at the most expedient, quickest way of keeping the media at bay -- do what you can, whether it's pleading guilty or buying silence, to keep the allegations, true or false, under wraps.
One last thought: If this turns out to be about a cover-up attempt, I'd bet Copperfield, again like Craig, tried to handle it himself rather than call his lawyer immediately. People should take a lesson from that.
| < Brent Wilkes' Choice of Mark Geragos for Counsel | Be Very Afraid > |
