Former NFL star Michael Irvin accused of sexual assault
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A woman has filed a lawsuit against Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin, claiming he sexually assaulted her at a Florida hotel.
The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday, seeks unspecified damages from the NFL Network commentator for allegedly assaulting her at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on July 4 or 5, 2007.
A Seminole tribe spokesman told the Associated Press that the incident was reported to tribal police on July 20, 2007, but the woman later signed a waiver of prosecution.
In the lawsuit, the woman alleges that Irvin got her drunk before taking her back to her room and, along with another unidentified man, insisted on sexual favors. The woman says Irvin then raped her.
Irvin’s attorney, Larry Friedman, said the lawsuit was nothing more than a ‘civil extortion’ attempt. Friedman says that an attorney for the woman contacted him before Irvin’s appearance last year on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and said Irvin would have to pay the woman $1 million or face a lawsuit.
‘Nothing happened. There was no encounter between this Jane Doe and Michael Irvin,’ Friedman said. ‘The entire story is false, it’s bogus, it’s made up.’
In 1996, another woman accused Irvin of sexual assault but recanted after her story was discovered to be false.
-- Austin Knoblauch
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
