Do you remember the case of the Arkansas businessman who sued a Las Vegas exotic dancer, alleging that she left him with heartache and a multimillion-dollar hole in his bank account?
Well, the case has been dismissed from Washington County Circuit Court, but was recently refiled in a state court in Las Vegas.
Washington County Circuit Judge Beth Storey Bryan ruled a few months ago that it would be more convenient and cheaper for those involved to try the case in Nevada.
If you recall, Fred Michael Brunner said last year in his lawsuit that during the decade-long relationship with Melanie Beth Sterling of Nevada, he lavished her with more than $3 million, a $720,000 Las Vegas house and trips. Brunner thought the relationship was exclusive, his suit says, but it turned out that Sterling was seeing another man during most, if not all, of the time she was dating Brunner.
He filed suit to get his money and property back. Sterling, in her court filings, denied the allegations, saying his lawsuit is “riddled with falsehoods” and should be thrown out.
Bryan said in her order filed June 2 that she “recognizes the financial and logistical burden of hailing witnesses of the matter into Arkansas.”
The parties met in Las Vegas, and Sterling lives in Nevada, as do most witnesses to the relationship, she wrote. Brunner also refers to frequent trips to Nevada in his lawsuit, so his travel to Nevada to litigate the matter “is of minimal inconvenience,” she said.
She dismissed the case. It was refiled July 15 in Nevada, where it is pending.
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