By Alan Duke
CNN
LOS ANGELES (CNN) — A massage therapist who accused John Travolta of sexually assaulting him at the Beverly Hills Hotel hired high-profile attorney Gloria Allred to represent him a day after he withdrew from a lawsuit filed by another lawyer.
“We are in the process of conferring with him regarding the next steps, which he may wish to take,” Allred said.
The original federal suit against Travolta is still pending, but it involves just one male therapist who says the actor groped him during a massage at an Atlanta hotel.
Attorney Okorie Okorocha, who filed the lawsuit last week, dropped John Doe #1, who made the Beverly Hills allegation, from the complaint Tuesday because of the Texas man’s confusion over the date of the alleged incident.
Travolta lawyer Martin Singer called the charges from both men “ridiculous” and said the dismissal of John Doe #1 “completely vindicated” the actor on that allegation.
“We fully expect that my client will similarly be vindicated with respect to Doe #2, as well as with respect to any other person who makes meritless claims against John Travolta,” Singer said.
That dismissal was “without prejudice, which means that he is still legally entitled to file a lawsuit against John Travolta if he chooses,” Allred said Wednesday.
Okorocha apologized last Friday for putting the wrong date of the John Doe #1 incident in the lawsuit, saying his first client initially told him it was January 16, 2012. Singer produced a restaurant receipt and a time-stamped photograph that showed the actor was in New York, not Los Angeles, on that date.
Instead of just changing the date on the filing to January 15 — the day John Doe #1 later decided was when it happened — Okorocha decided to withdraw the allegation from the lawsuit. Otherwise, it would have hampered the chances of John Doe #2’s case, he said.
Okorocha also said he had “personality conflicts” with John Doe #1 that contributed to his decision.
