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In June of 2023, former UFC champion Conor McGregor was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a bathroom at Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Miami. The woman claimed NBA and Heat security separated her from her friend and then locked her in a bathroom with McGregor and his security guard where the alleged assault took place.
Now she has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against Conor McGregor and the Miami Heat. The lawsuit also names Basketball Properties LLC, which operates the Kaseya Center, as a defendant because “the failure to cut [McGregor]’s access to alcoholic beverages off after he was overserved demonstrates a conscious disregard for the safety patrons similarly situated to and including [the plaintiff].”
The woman had previously claimed after the alleged assault that “security refused to let [the woman] exit or allow anyone else, including her friend, inside the bathroom.” Once inside, she said, Conor McGregor “shoved his tongue in the victim’s mouth and aggressively kissed her.”
McGregor then allegedly forced her to give him oral sex and attempted to sodomize her. This all allegedly took place at the same event where the MMA star knocked out Heat mascot Burnie and sent the man inside wearing the mascot suit to the hospital.
A video was later made public that shows Conor McGregor taking the woman by the hand and leading her into a bathroom inside the Kaseya Center. In the video, it doesn’t appear as if the alleged victim was in any way forced to enter the bathroom, but it does show three men appearing to guard the door to the bathroom after McGregor and the woman entered it. She says that when she tried to escape the bathroom, McGregor slammed her into a wall face first and put her in an arm lock.
Following the alleged assault, the woman’s attorney said she went to police to report the incident, but was turned away and advised to hire legal help.
“After the Miami-Dade County Prosecutor’s office elected not to pursue criminal charges, a civil case is the only avenue that my client has to seek justice in this case,” James Dunn, the alleged victim’s attorney, wrote in an email to Front Office Sports. “My client has thought long and hard about the decision to pursue this civil case, and is fearful of the effect it may have on her job on Wall Street.”
She is seeking reimbursement of past and future medical treatment, compensatory damages that exceed $75,000, attorney’s fees, and other financial relief. In November, Conor McGregor was found liable in a different sexual assault lawsuit and ordered to pay the victim $328,000 in damages.
UPDATE: Statement from Barbara Llanes of Gelber, Schachter & Greenberg, counsel for Conor McGregor: “After a thorough investigation at the time, the State’s Attorney concluded that there was no case to pursue. Almost two years and at least three lawyers later the plaintiff has a new false story. We are confident that this case too will be dismissed.”