Dancer Flatley gets go-ahead for US$100m extortion lawsuit

LOS ANGELES - Riverdance star Michael Flatley today won a court ruling allowing him to proceed with a US$100 million ($163.23 million) extortion and defamation lawsuit against a woman who claimed he had raped her.

Lawyers for the woman, Tyna Marie Robertson, had argued that the lawsuit brought by the self-styled Lord of the Dance should be thrown out because it infringed her constitutional right to free speech.

But the California state Supreme Court disagreed and said Flatley's lawsuit could proceed to trial.

The acrimonious court battle stems from claims by Robertson that Flatley raped her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2002. Police declined to press criminal charges and Flatley said the sex was consensual.

Robertson then filed a US$33 million civil sexual assault suit. Flatley countered with a lawsuit claiming civil extortion, fraud and defamation.

Flatley, 48, who was born in the United States of Irish heritage, is credited with re-inventing traditional Irish dancing in the mid 1990s and making it popular around the world.

- REUTERS