Former aspiring model Brittney Lewis claims that magician David Copperfield drugged and assaulted her when she was 17 years old.
Lewis told The Wrap that she met the magician in September 1988 in Atami, Japan, for the “Look of the Year” modeling contest, where Copperfield, then 32, was working as a judge for the competition.
She claims he then invited her to visit him in California for one of his shows after receiving permission from her grandmother.
After the show, Copperfield allegedly took Lewis to a bar, where she claims he poured something into her glass.
“I asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘Oh, I’m just sharing,’ ” Lewis told The Wrap.
Lewis claims she blacked out, but remembers him in her hotel room in a black robe, kissing her while he lay on top of her.
“I remember my clothes being taken off,” she told The Wrap. “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, Lewis claims, Copperfield re-entered her room to say that “nothing happened because I was underage.”
Lewis told The Wrap that she cut her California trip short by a few days after the alleged assault, but not before Copperfield made her write and sign a letter saying she was OK.
A therapist later told her that was a contract for her silence.
Lewis said she told the FBI in 2007 after former beauty queen Lacey Carroll accused the magician of sexually assaulting her, but nothing came of her report.
Hours before Lewis’ accusations were published on Wednesday, the magician released a statement, calling the #MeToo movement “crucial and long overdue” but urging people to be wary of allegations.
“I’ve lived with years of news reports about me being accused of fabricated, heinous acts, with few telling the story of the accuser getting arrested, and my innocence. Knowing that false accusers can negatively impact the believability of others and are a true disservice to those who have been victims of sexual misconduct, I didn’t draw attention to it,” he wrote.
“So while I weather another storm, I want the movement to continue to flourish. Always listen, and consider everything carefully, but please for everyone’s sake don’t rush to judgment.”
Carroll, the then-Miss Washington USA, accused Copperfield of sexually assaulting her in 2007.
Carroll claimed she met the magician in Kennewick, Wash., at a show in January, then visited him at his Bahamas home over the summer.
There, she claimed he attacked and sexually assaulted her.
The FBI investigated Carroll’s claims for two years before closing the case in January 2010.
Carroll was later charged with prostitution and allegedly making a false accusation of rape against another man. She filed a civil lawsuit against Copperfield, but it was dismissed in April 2010.
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