|
 "The parties believe it is time to take advantage of the new
information that has come to light on both sides during the
litigation and put these matters behind them," the three lawyers
said in a joint statement on Friday.
The defamation lawsuits stemmed from claims that the woman, Virginia
Giuffre, made in another court in December 2014 that she was forced
as a girl to have sex with Dershowitz, the UK's Prince Andrew, and
other men. Dershowitz and Prince Andrew denied the allegations, and
the allegations were later stricken from court records.
Giuffre was not a party to the defamation lawsuits or the
settlement. A spokesman for the law firm of Boies, Schiller &
Flexner, separate lawyers for her, said in a statement on Friday
that she stands by her accusations.
 Two of Giuffre's attorneys, Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell, had sued
Dershowitz for defamation in a Broward County, Florida, state court
after Dershowitz accused them of acting unethically. Dershowitz
counter-sued.
As part of a settlement on Friday, Dershowitz withdrew his
accusation that they acted unethically, and Edwards and Cassell said
it was a mistake to have filed the accusations against Dershowitz.
They added in a separate court filing on Friday that their mistake
was tactical and that Giuffre stood by the accusations.
"Dershowitz completely denies any such misconduct, while not
disputing Roberts’s [Giuffre] statements that the underlying alleged
misconduct may have occurred with someone else," the three lawyers
said in the statement.
[to top of second column] |
"Dershowitz has produced travel and other records for the relevant
times which he relies on to establish that he could not have been
present when the alleged misconduct occurred. He has also produced
other evidence that he relies upon to refute the credibility of the
allegations against him," they said.
Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus, may be best
known for helping to successfully defend OJ Simpson against murder
charges.
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis Freeh, whom
Dershowitz hired to investigate Giuffre's accusations, said he found
no evidence to support them and had found evidence directly
contradicting them.
"In my opinion, the totality of the evidence found during the
investigation refutes the allegations made against Professor
Dershowitz," Freeh said in a statement.
(Reporting by David Ingram in New York)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
