(JTA) — A federal judge has stricken from the record allegations about Alan Dershowitz in a woman’s lawsuit claiming that she had forced sex with high-profile men.
The woman, referred to as Jane Doe #3 in a lawsuit charging preferential treatment for Jeffrey Epstein in granting the billionaire financier a plea deal for state prostitution charges rather than federal prosecution, alleged that she worked as a sex slave for Epstein from the time she was 15 and serviced people like Dershowitz and Prince Andrew. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two Florida state solicitation-of-prostitution charges.
Dershowitz, who had helped defend Epstein against the prostitution charges, has vehemently denied the claims and has shown he was not in the places where the acts were said to have taken place. Dershowitz was not a party in the suit.
District Court Judge Kenneth Marra on Tuesday appeared to be sympathetic to Dershowitz’s claims, Politico reported, but did not rely on his denials.
“The factual details regarding with whom and where the Jane Does engaged in sexual activities are immaterial and impertinent to this central claim … especially considering that these details involve non-parties who are not related to the respondent Government. These unnecessary details shall be stricken,” Marra wrote in his decision.
Dershowitz told Politico that the ruling in West Palm Beach, Fla., was a “complete legal vindication.”
The judge also rejected Dershowitz’s request to sanction the lawyers who filed the motion, who he had threatened to have disbarred.
CORRECTION: This article stated incorrectly that the judge had tossed the woman’s lawsuit. The judge struck the allegations about Alan Dershowitz from the record but did not dismiss the suit.
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