Magician David Copperfield Wants To Make Sexual Assault Case Vanish

Magician David Copperfield is the victim of "extortion for money, plain and simple," his attorneys said Wednesday in response to a lawsuit filed in Seattle against the entertainer that accuses him of sexually assaulting and threatening a former Miss Washington USA contestant on his private island two years ago.

Copperfield's accuser "has a history of lying... which continues in this lawsuit,” according to his attorneys, Angelo Calfo and Patty Eakes.

Copperfield, 52 and the woman, 22, had dinner and a movie on a July 2007 evening. The magician then, according to the lawsuit, "attacked her and sexually assaulted her" -- even making threats to kill her if she did not comply with his sexual requests.

"Throughout the assault (the woman) physically and verbally resisted Defendant Copperfield and struggled to get away from him," according to the lawsuit.

The woman wants an unnamed amount for emotional distress, false misrepresentation and false imprisonment; her attorneys said the suit was filed July 29, the deadline for a two-year statute of limitations on charges of such nature.