16 accuse David Copperfield Of Sexual Misconduct

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David Copperfield is being accused of sexual misconduct by 16 women, half of whom claim they were underage when he allegedly groomed or groped them.

The Guardian published an expansive report Wednesday after speaking with more than 100 people, including former employees who claimed Copperfield tasked them with approaching young women at his shows. The alleged incidents occurred over four decades, according to the report, from the 1980s to 2014.

Three of Copperfield’s accusers also claimed the magician drugged them before their nonconsensual sexual encounters.

One woman identified as “Carla” claimed Copperfield gave her his phone number and a teddy bear for Valentine’s Day when she was 15. She says he sent her a note, which was given to The Guardian, when she was 16 that read: “In 2 years I will be back.”

Carla said she was only 17 when Copperfield invited her into his limousine and pushed her head toward his crotch. She told The Guardian that she was “not forced” to perform oral sex, but felt “awkward” — as it was her first time.

Carla said they had penetrative sex when she was 18 and believes she was groomed. Copperfield’s lawyers denied that the magician groomed Carla and said their relationship was consensual.

“I was a young schoolgirl infatuated with a man who was famous and I think he used that to benefit him,” she told The Guardian.

Another woman identified as “Gillian” claimed Copperfield invited her and a friend backstage for a drink from the crowd of one of his shows in Las Vegas in the 1990s. Gillian said she was then handed a glass of sambuca that made her feel “weird, physically weird.”

Gillian added she felt “fuzzy” before blacking out. She said she remembers waking up while Copperfield was having sex with her.

The exposé noted that Copperfield also allegedly groped four women during live performances and spoke on the phone with five teenage girls and their families.

Copperfield’s lawyers denied both the alleged drugging and said it was “untenable” that he would have groped an audience member during a performance.

Copperfield has been accused of sexual misconduct before.

The illusionist was accused in 2007 of luring an ex-beauty pageant model to his private island in the Bahamas and sexually assaulting her, a case the FBI investigated. He was also accused in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a former teen model.

Copperfield remains the highest-paid performer in his field with a reported value of $875 million.

An ex-assistant noted Wednesday that Copperfield regularly met with young women.

“There were always women coming and going,” the former employee, who identified only as Valerie, told The Guardian. “I never saw anybody come in that was unwilling to come but I felt the power dynamic just seemed very wrong. Like these were very young women.”

The message pads appear a little faded, but the handwriting on the spiral-bound notebooks is clear enough.

Staff at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Florida’s Palm Beach used the pads to jot down the names of the people who had called the financier, and between 2004 and 2005, one well-known person appeared to be calling persistently.

Not Prince Andrew or Bill Gates, or even Bill Clinton, the former US president, though all of them have come under a spotlight over their relationships with the disgraced billionaire.

The name on the pads is one that – until recently – has had far less scrutiny: David Copperfield.

According to copies of the phone message pads, seen by the Guardian, the magician appears to have left messages for Epstein 16 times in just a few months. The notations on the pads include brief messages such as “it’s important” and “just called to say hello”. One says “it’s jackpot” without further explanation.

In a written response to questions from the Guardian US, Copperfield’s lawyers denied that he had left “multiple messages” for Epstein. “Any messages that were left would have been left by our client’s office in response to a request by Epstein for tickets to a show,” the lawyers said.

The Guardian has examined Copperfield’s contacts with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in prison in 2019, as part of a broader investigation that includes an examination of allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by the illusionist. Copperfield has denied ever engaging in sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior.

The phone messages were not the only alleged contacts between the magician and the financier. Copperfield appears to have met with Epstein at least three times, according to interviews with witnesses, court records and police evidence. Two Epstein victims have separately told the Guardian they were present at such meetings – one at a dinner at Epstein’s home in 2004 and the other at Copperfield’s Las Vegas “warehouse” the same year.

Were the two men close? His lawyers insist not. They said Copperfield – who has not previously commented on his relationship with Epstein – “was not a friend of Jeffrey Epstein”.

They also said he was completely unaware of Epstein’s “horrific crimes”. “Like the rest of the world, he learned about it from the press.”

Sigrid McCawley, a victims’ rights attorney at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner who has represented multiple Epstein victims, argues that there are still questions to answer. “David Copperfield cannot hide or make his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein disappear,” she said.

‘I was invited backstage’
Copperfield’s alleged relationship with Epstein made headlines just a few months ago, in January of this year, after the illusionist’s name was among those referenced in newly unsealed court records in an Epstein-related case. The inclusion of Copperfield’s name in the court records does not mean he committed any crime or knew about Epstein’s criminal conduct.

The court records included new details about an alleged conversation Copperfield had with a woman, Johanna Sjoberg, who would years later accuse Epstein of abusing her.

In a sworn deposition, Sjoberg alleged she had been invited to a dinner at Epstein’s house and had been offered a chance to meet the famous magician. Sjoberg confirmed to the Guardian that the dinner took place in 2004.

Sjoberg – who was in her 20s at the time of the dinner – claimed in the deposition that she had waited at the house along with a girl who she had not met before and seemed very young. She testified that Copperfield “did some magic tricks”. She said she believed that Copperfield and Epstein were friends.

Epstein was running a well-established operation by this time, recruiting girls and women from local schools and colleges to give him massages that led to sexual abuse. In some cases, Epstein paid the young women to enlist others they knew. There is no suggestion that Copperfield was participating in this scheme or Epstein’s abuse.

In her deposition, a lawyer asked Sjoberg: “Did Copperfield ever discuss Jeffrey’s involvement with young girls with you?”

She responded: “He questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls.”

In the deposition, she said Copperfield didn’t tell her any specifics, including whether the girls were teenagers.

You may be an intellectual if:

• Someone mentions the name "David Copperfield" and all you can think of is the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?!?!

Someone mentions the name "David Copperfield" and all you can think of is the Charles Dickens character of the same name.

Yeah, I was perplexed.

You may be an intellectual if:

• Someone mentions the name "David Copperfield" and all you can think of is the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?!?!