NFL star Puka Nacua is planning to file a defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused the Los Angeles Rams wide receiver of biting and using anti-Semitic slurs, his lawyer has said.
The alleged victim applied for a temporary restraining order which revealed her account of a group outing on New Year’s Eve in the Century City area of Los Angeles.
According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Nacua is accused of saying ‘f*** all the Jews’ during dinner.
The woman called this phrase the ‘first act in what became an escalating course of rude or vulgar, threatening, violent, and harassing conduct’ by the Rams star, who is also accused of biting and being ‘touchy-feely.’
Nacua denies the allegations ‘in the strongest possible terms’ and now his attorney, Levi McCathern, has released a blistering statement in response to the allegations. He accused the woman of trying to ‘blackmail’ the NFL player and revealed their plans to escalate the legal war.
‘Let’s be clear about what this case is – and what it is not. This matter is not sexual in nature, nor does it involve any allegation of domestic violence. If it did, the filings would look very different. They do not,’ he told the Daily Mail.
Puka Nacua is planning to file a defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused him of biting and using anti-Semitic slurs
According to court documents, Nacua is accused of saying ‘f*** all the Jews’ during a dinner
‘It also doesn’t involve any elements of antisemitism. A completely sober witness has stated unequivocally that Puka never made the comments [redacted] claims.
‘Recent media reports have included inflammatory and unverified claims… that are flatly inconsistent with the facts. In fact, she continued to spend time with our client after the alleged incident – conduct that directly contradicts the narrative now being advanced – as evidenced by the videos seen online of her twerking and partying at a club.
‘In the months that followed, our office was contacted with demands for millions of dollars in exchange for not publicizing these allegations. That is not a legitimate legal claim – it is blackmail.
‘The timing of the claimant’s recent legal action – nearly three months after the alleged incident and just says [sic] after JSN’s [Jaxon Smith-Njigba] record-breaking contract as a wide receiver – further underscores the complete lack of credibility behind these accusations.
‘Puka denies these allegations in the strongest possible terms. We will be filing a defamation lawsuit and pursuing all available legal remedies in response to these false and damaging statements.’
After dinner, the woman claims that she and her friend – as well as Nacua and others – got in a Sprinter van when he became ‘touchy-feely’ with her.
Then, she alleges, Nacua ‘dropped his head into [her] girlfriend’s lap and crotch area and bit her thumb so forcefully that she screamed in acute pain’ before the wide receiver then turned to the alleged victim and bit her left shoulder.
The bite allegedly broke the woman’s skin and left a circular imprint of his teeth. A photo of this was included in the application for a temporary restraining order. A day after the incident, the alleged victim contacted police and filed an incident report.
Before the woman filed the petition for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday, the two sides met at a mediation conference that was attended by both the woman and Nacua, both their attorneys and a crisis PR team.
The woman attached this photo of the bite mark allegedly left by Nacua in court documents
This alleged incident took place just days after Nacua performed an offensive Jewish stereotype on a live stream at the behest of Adin Ross (L). Nacua later apologized.
In that meeting, McCathern allegedly ‘made unprivileged threats to contact TMZ and other press and media outlets and to disseminate false, inaccurate, and/or deliberately exaggerated public statements’ about the events on New Year’s Eve. The Daily Mail reached out to McCathern about the allegation.
According to court documents, the request for a temporary restraining order was denied until a follow-up hearing on April 14.
McCathern told TMZ that the accusations in the complaint were a ‘shakedown attempt’ and claimed the bite mark happened during some ‘horseplay’ while the group was partying and that nothing more than a ‘temporary mark’ was left.
The timing of Nacua’s alleged anti-Semitic slur came just days after he was embroiled in another similar controversy with streamer Adin Ross – who tried to convince the receiver to celebrate a touchdown with Ross’ so-called ‘Jewish dance.’
The ‘dance’ was little more than the streamer rubbing his hands together – evoking a negative stereotype of Jewish people from a racist cartoon.
Nacua was publicly criticized by the likes of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy among others. The receiver later apologized, saying he had ‘no idea’ about the reference.
