February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tyna Marie Robertson, a Chicago-area real estate agent who says she visited Flatley in Las Vegas last October.
She says the rape occurred in his suite at the Venetian Resort Hotel-Casino.
Flatley’s lawyer called the allegations “absolutely false.” He said the woman threatened months ago to claim rape unless Flatley paid her.
Last Thursday, Flatley filed a $100 million countersuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court against the woman. He filed the suit after first taking his case to the FBI, said his lawyer.
In the suit, Flatley accused the woman of attempting to extort money from him by claiming a consensual one-night stand last fall was a sexual assault.
“We filed the lawsuit because what this lady did was outrageous,” said his lawyer, Burt Fields. “It will do tremendous damage to Mr. Flatley. Even when he wins the case, some people will still believe the accusations.”
The woman’s lawyer, D. Dean Mauro, has said she met the 44-year-old dance star at an event in Las Vegas in September. Mauro said Flatley invited her to visit him for a day of sightseeing, shopping and gambling.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that the woman filed a criminal complaint with police in Las Vegas last November alleging Flatley had forced her to have sex with him, but the investigation was dropped when she refused to cooperate.
Flatley’s suit accuses Robertson and her lawyer of defamation and civil extortion, saying she made up the story of rape and threatened to publicize the allegation in an attempt to blackmail him.
Flatley said in his lawsuit that Robertson lodged the “bogus report” in order to create a paper “record” as part of her extortion scheme.
The dancer turned the matter over to the FBI, which launched its own investigation as to whether the woman and her attorney had violated federal extortion laws, FBI spokesman Daron Borst said.