The defense of actor Nuno Lopes guaranteed on Tuesday that the lawyer for North American director AM Lucas, who accuses the Portuguese of having raped her, urged him to come forward with a monetary proposal as a condition to avoid legal action. Portuguese actor said, in a statement, that he received on November 6, by email, a communication from AM Lucas’s lawyer, Michael J. Willemin, informing that the North American screenwriter and director “intended it to be Nuno Lopes who moved forward with a proposal for a monetary sum.” “I confirm that it was presented as a condition to prevent the action from being brought. It was very clear to everyone that the action would be made public if Nuno Lopes did not compensate Mrs. Lukas, and that publicity would be given to it, as it was”, highlighted Rute Oliveira Serôdio. Michael J. Willemin said on Tuesday, in statements cited by the station CNN Portugal, that “Lukas never proposed any monetary sum to resolve this matter, and also never proposed to keep anything confidential in exchange for money.” “She asked Lopes to publicly take responsibility for his behavior, but he refused to do so”, stressed the lawyer. The Portuguese lawyer also added, in the statement, that Nuno Lopes refused to negotiate, as the actor had already disclosed. “He assumes no guilt, nor will he pay any amount. She prefers to defend her good name and honor, which she will do in court, even in the Federal Court of New York with the inherent material costs”, added Rute Oliveira Serôdio.AM Lukas accused Nuno Lopes of having drugged and raped her in 2006, when they met at the Tribeca Festival, in a lawsuit filed on Monday in New York. In the complaint, filed last Friday, AM Lukas says that on April 28, 2006, he went to a premiere party at the Tribeca Festival. Tribeca Cinema, where she was introduced to Nuno Lopes, and who, shortly after meeting each other, began to feel her body “unusually heavy” and began to “lose her memory”, reveal the director’s lawyers, in a statement. Reporting to “few and horrible fragmented memories of that night and the early hours of the morning”, AM Lukas reported remembering Nuno Lopes “holding her soft legs” and raping her, detailing the various ways in which he did so, while she went in and out of states of consciousness. In a statement, the Portuguese actor refuted all the accusations, declaring himself morally and ethically incapable of such acts, today as 17 years ago – when he was an acting student in New York –, and guaranteeing that he will never be “afraid to take legal action against anyone” who tries to defame his good name. Regarding the accusations, the actor claims to have received them with “surprise and shock”, through a letter from AM Lukas’ lawyers, in which he was asked to “ proposed a monetary amount for this case to end, and an apology”, which Nuno Lopes rejected. Nuno Lopes began the statement by clarifying that despite having always valued his personal life, keeping his privacy protected, in this case he had the “greater desire to come forward to clarify and tell the truth about this story”, which he only did not do because he was instructed by his American lawyers to “refrain[-se] to reveal any and all details about the process”. With this legal process, filed in New York Court on Monday, 17 years after the incident, the American director intends to hold the Portuguese actor responsible for his actions and draw attention of victims of alleged sexual crimes to the end of the deadline under a special legislative framework, entitled ‘The Adult Survivors Act’, to file charges. The deadline to file a lawsuit under the so-called New York Adult Survivors Act (in free translation ) ends on Thursday. According to AM Lukas’ lawyers, the screenwriter suffered “serious psychological and emotional trauma”, which “she has to endure to this day”. AM Lukas stated, in turn, that the Portuguese actor was given “the opportunity to take responsibility for his actions: to recognize what he did, to answer for it and to apologize.” “He immediately refused to do so and communicated unequivocally that he would never recognize any unlawful act. We cannot accept a world in which the perpetrators of heinous and inhumane behavior can live their lives in the open, with impunity and without social consequences, while their victims suffer in silence”, he added, stressing that despite any attempts at humiliation and discredit that can be carried out by Nuno Lopes’ defense, he will not allow himself to be “deterred from doing justice”. The actor also states the same intention that justice be done, because he has an “absolutely clear conscience”, although “aware of the very serious consequences that this case represents” and how his “decision to refuse a confidential settlement and publicly go to court has consequences” for his “personal and professional reputation”. “Nevertheless, I want to make it very clear that I refute all the accusations that I am told that I hope that this case will be promptly clarified and judged fairly by the competent authorities and that I will never be afraid to take legal action against anyone who tries to defame my good name”, concluded the actor.
North American screenwriter urged Nuno Lopes to pay to avoid legal action, says defense
