Michael Flatley with his fiancé[UPI]
"Lord of the Dance" star Michael Flatley has agreed to accept an $11 million payment to settle false rape claims made by attorney Dean Mauro and his client, a Chicago exotic dancer.
The case took a long detour to the California Supreme Court regarding attorney Mauro’s request to dismiss the case under the so called “anti-SLAPP” statute, designed to protect litigants and their counsel from liability arising from constitutionally protected speech or legitimate pre-litigation activity. (Flatley v. Mauro (2006) 39 Cal.4th 299.)
Under California law, attorney letters threatening legal action and demanding money in settlement are typically immune from civil liability under the Civil Code section 47 litigation privilege.
Attorney Mauro sought to have the case dismissed under the anti-SLAPP law and argued his letters demanding millions from Flatley to be paid in a matter of days to avoid publicity surrounding the dancer’s allegation that Flatley raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room were litigation privileged.
In a particularly blunt decision, the California Supreme Court held that attorney Mauro’s conduct was “extortion as matter of law” and thus not protected by anti-SLAPP statute:
“Evaluating Mauro's conduct, we conclude that the letter and subsequent phone calls constitute criminal extortion as a matter of law. These communications threatened to “accuse” Flatley of, or “impute to him,” “crime[s]” and “disgrace”…unless Flatley paid Mauro a minimum of $1 million of which Mauro was to receive 40 percent. That the threats were half-couched in legalese does not disguise their essential character as extortion.”
The Supreme Court therefore returned the case to the trial court, paving the way for the $11 Million settlement.
Flatley had been in Las Vegas at the time of the alleged attack, performing his patented "Lord of the Dance" show at the Venetian Casino.
The stripper’s rape claim was never given credence by the Las Vegas police.
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