Couple who accused Oilers owner Daryl Katz of improper relationship with ballerina drop lawsuit, attorney apologizes

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An American couple who claimed Daryl Katz had an inappropriate relationship with a ballet dancer when she was 17 have retracted their claim and apologized to the billionaire Oilers owner.

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On August 3, Mitchell Taylor Button and Dusty Button filed a notice to dismiss a third-party lawsuit against Katz as part of their ongoing litigation with ballerina Sage Humphries.

Humphries and six other ballerinas are suing the Buttons, alleging the couple emotionally, financially and sexually abused them, in some cases as far back as 2007.

The Buttons deny the allegations and, as part of their defense, last month filed a third-party lawsuit and counterclaim alleging that Katz paid Humphries for sex when she was 17.

Katz and Humphries both denied any kind of sexual relationship. Shortly after CBC first reported the Buttons’ claims, Katz and Humphries produced a driver’s license showing Humphries was born in 1997, which she said was business-related at the time of their interactions with Katz, which both sides said was 18 was years old.

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Five days after Katz and Humphries submitted the license, the Buttons dropped their lawsuit against Katz and issued an apology.

“Dusty and Mitchell Button made their allegations based on their understanding of the information provided to them by Sage Humphries,” attorney Marc Randazza said in a written statement provided to Katz’s Legal Department.

“Nevertheless, Mr. Katz’s attorney provided the Buttons with credible evidence that the main allegations were untrue… Based on this credible evidence, Dusty Button and Mitchell Button have dismissed their claims against Daryl Katz.”

Randazza added: “I would like to personally apologize for the harm that the erroneous statements of fact may have caused to Mr. Katz and his family. We made the claims in good faith, but the moment I doubted whether they could be upheld, I took redress and asked the court to remove all relevant references from the record. No one should repeat these allegations in any context without indicating that they have been retracted and denied.”

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“A Very Difficult Time”

Humphries and six other dancers filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2021, alleging that Mitchell and Dusty Button subjected them to “a deliberate combination of emotional control, financial manipulation and sexual abuse” when the plaintiffs sought or ballerinas of early career. The allegations could not be proven in court.

Humphries, 24, said she met the buttons in 2016 when she was an apprentice dancer with the Boston Ballet. At the time, Dusty Button was the ballet’s star dancer while her husband was a dance teacher.

In the lawsuit, Humphries alleges the Buttons offered to “make her famous like Dusty” by controlling her phone and social media. They later began sexually abusing Humphries and threatened to ruin her career if she refused to submit, the lawsuit says.

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In a countersuit, the Buttons admitted they had sex with Humphries, but that the relationship was an amicable “trouple” that began at Humphries’ instigation after she turned 18.

In last week’s strike motion, Randazza said the Buttons were under the impression that Humphries was born in 1998, which would have made her 17 at the time of her interactions with Katz in 2016.

Randazza said he and his clients conducted “extensive” research to verify claims that Humphries was a minor, including consulting the LexisNexis database, which incorrectly listed her date of birth as October 1998.

Wikipedia also claimed that she was born in 1998 “up ​​to August 1, 2022, when edited by an anonymous unregistered editor to state that she was born on October 3, 1997,” Randazza wrote.

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Randazza said his clients could have left the question of Humphries’ age to the judge. “However, it is simply unfair to accuse Mr. Katz … of dating Sage Humphries when she was 17 when there is reliable evidence to the contrary,” he wrote in the filing.

“It’s worth noting that this misunderstanding would not have been possible if Sage Humphries hadn’t been dishonest about the year of her birth to begin with,” he added.

Postmedia reached out to Randazza for comment, but didn’t immediately receive a response.

In an email, Oilers spokesman Tim Shipton said, “It has been a very difficult time for Daryl and his family, they are relieved that these claims have been denied.”

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