This hit our papers this morning

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo......27m.html

I still find all this hard to believe.The story said she said "He raped and struck her during her two days on the island" No way...I have a gut feeling that Copperfield isn't that kind of person.Besides,hes too smart and knows he has too much to lose.

Than it says "Copperfield threatened her, telling her she'd better keep quiet" Give me a break. I smell a "Gold Digger"

It just dosen't make sense,and I have found in my years that if something dosen't make sense than it isn't so.

The sad part is,if its proven that this woman made false allegations,she'll just go home and nothing will happen to her.It happens like that all the time.

Don

Don I like him too but we can't assume anything about her. Come on man the woman may actually have been raped.

David deserves respect and deserves the benifit of the doubt, but so does she.

I say we let it play out.

Think about this one.She claimed Copperfield threatened her.How does someone like Copperfield threaten somebody ? Death...that never happen. Maybe he said "if you go tell anyone I won't let you come to anymore of my shows" It dosen't make sense.No way did David do this...

Don I am with you, BUT this woman does not deserve to be accused of anything.

They took her clothes into evidence.

I am just saying that we should not specualte about her or him and let it play out. The Grand Jury has the evidence. We have a system in place for this let it work.

As Danny says,

None of us know any of the facts. Its silly to speculate either way.

The womans groups who jump to the side of the accuser ( because she is a woman ) with no facts are just as silly as magicians who jump to the side of Copperfield because he is a magician.

It reminds me of when the news broke a few months ago about the wrestler who murdered his family and then killed himself. The wrestling forums were filled with wrestling fans saying.... "NO WAY... he'd never do that because he's such a good wrestler" Look how stupid they looked when the facts came out.

What does talent have to do with anything????

I can see close personal friends of either side stating personal opinion in defense of their side but all others are useless.

Best,

Tim

Gold diggers generally use lawyers to extract money from their targets. This doesn't appear to be a civil case where she is suing for monetary damages. She's in Federal Court and pressing charges against Copperfield.

If this actually did happen then where is the past times it's happened? I took a few criminology and profiling classes and for someone to go from doing nothing, working, touring, etc. to rape and threats of murder is absurd.

People don't just become criminals, they learn how to do it. And since I've nerver heard of Copperfield (and I could be wrong here) doing anything like this, what was the motivation this time?

Josh London

I'm not sticking up for Copperfield because hes a magician.I'm sticking up for him because none of it makes sense.

Don

Don ..what part doesn't make sense? It's pretty much a typical investigation other than the fact that its a famous person accused.

Best,

Tim

I posted this over on Genii forum, now that's there's a thread here for it, let me add it to the discussion.

This one part I know is true because it happened to Syd and I.

"she and her family were approached at a Jan. 25 performance in the Tri-Cities area by a member of Copperfield's entourage almost as soon as they entered the auditorium. They were led to special seats, and Copperfield selected the woman to come on stage as part of his act, the federal sources said."

On Novemeber 23, 2003, when Syd and I got to the theater, a member of the staff moved us from Row FF seats 34 and 35 to Row BB seats 9 and 10, which was second row, dead center.

My first thought was when we were moved, was because we were at a bad angle in the theater for some of the illusions. Second row center from the BJCC Concert Hall in Birminham Alabama is about 6-8 feet from the stage. We sat next to the video camera that he used for Portal, it was on Syd's right. On my left was a 7-8 year old girl and on her left was her parents.

At the end of the show before the meet and greet all I had to do was reach over the front row to shake his hand.

Later on, Syd was choosen to be in Portal with David. He tossed the 'silver ball' over his head right into my hands and told me to give it to the nearest adult woman. I gave to Syd and she went up on stage and picked 3 people to help her with the picture and holding the whiteboard for Portal.

After the show, Syd was escorted backstage with two other women to meet David and get an autographed picture.

This is what happened while they we backstage. I'll let Syd type the next few lines so you can have it first hand.

.................

Syd - The three of us mostly communicated with David's assistant. I *think* it was his assistant that gave us the autographed pictures but I can't swear to that. David came in and all three of us told him how much we enjoyed the show and how pleased we were to meet him. He said a few words in return, looked slightly uncomfortable or preoccupied, and left. He was very polite, just not very chatty and certainly not flirty.

..................

Rick- Now you have it first hand, backstage with David at a show from my wife Syd. I got to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed the show, but didn't go into talking to magic with him, as he did look like he was running behind and needed to get going. He was very cordial to me personally and I was even wearing my IBM and SAM pins. (I've heard he hates talking to other magicians about magic, so I respected that).

Rick and Syd

Even if there wasn't rape involved it still looks like it can go pretty bad for Copperfield.

Inviting a young women you met in passing to an island resort with the promises of career advancement could easily be made to look predatory by a well versed prosecutor

Perhaps this is the first time it went awry. Perhaps his other "Guests" willingly went along with the seduction.

Interesting theory that he couldn't have done something like this since he's never done something like this before.



What would be the motivation this time? A number of possibilities exist but would require pure speculation. Power, or loss of power, can be a very strong motivator.

So since there is no history there can be no way it happened?

Josh you either had a bad teacher or misunderstood the course. No dective EVER would use this line of reasoning. It shows a fundimental misunderstanding of what is going on with the criminal mind.

Many criminals start off with smaller crimes, don't get caught or told different, and then graduate to larger and larger crimes. Getting smarter and smarter and avoiding things happening.

Just because there is not a Bill Clinton style parade of victims to cry it happened does NOT PRECLUDE it from having happened.

You are saying since he has not been caught before or accused before he is not guilty now.

An interesting theory. I would love to know the book it is in.

There are MANY men, later in life, that have had grievious errros in judgement and their emotions got away from them.

I think Copperfield and the lady in question desrve to be heard.

Let the courts sort it out.

I'll tell you this, the description above about back stage is pretty much what it is like with Copperfield. He is a nice guy and he does love the ladies. I'm interested in the woman because, at least the last time I saw him, his taste was for Asian women, very attractive ones....and he got them.

I'm not partial to reading gossip or commentary on the gossip.

I am saddened that DC is associated with such an ugly situation and hope the legal process gets things sorted out.

After every hurricane all the tv meteorologists get to do hard news. It's been a while since a magician was hard news, the last time involved a tiger. I think it's only natural that people involved in magic would want to discuss an unfolding situation, even without all of the facts. I do believe it makes sense for people to qualify their speculation as what it is though.

I find reading these threads (here and on other websites) to be a fascinating study of human behavior. The comments on the official DC site range from the expected to the absolutely unhealthy. I'm certain the posts that are negative to DC are being removed immediately.



The legal process will occasionally do that.

Regardless of the outcome, this can't end well for David. O.J. and M.J. were never convicted and look at the public opinion of them, as well as the state their careers are in.