By MARK DUELL, INDERDEEP BAINS and HUGO GYE
A Playboy model and alleged prostitute who sued Oscar De La Hoya after claiming he had imprisoned her in his hotel suite has failed in her fight for $5million compensation from the boxer.
Angelica Marie Cecora, 25, said that Mr De La Hoya had repeatedly demanded sex when she was trying to sleep after a drug-fuelled orgy at a Manhattan hotel.
But a judge today declared that the lawsuit was ‘frivolous’, and ordered Ms Cecora and her lawyer to pay a $500 fine each, as well as refunding the defendant’s legal fees.
Ms Cecora claimed that after dinner with the married ex-boxer on March 15 last year, the pair retired to his room in the Ritz-Carlton hotel overlooking Central Park.
After consensual sex, Mr De La Hoya, 38, put on Ms Cecora’s underwear and ordered drugs to his room at New York’s Ritz Hotel, the lawsuit said.
He allegedly then requested an extreme sex act and Ms Cecora obliged before having her roommate come over with sex toys.
Ms Cecora and her friend then fell asleep but Mr De La Hoya allegedly tried to pull her out of bed three times for more sex, according to the lawsuit.
She was ‘afraid to leave the hotel room because she feared the defendant would attempt to have sex with her against her will,’ her lawyer said.
But on Thursday Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten said Ms Cecora’s claim was ‘completely without merit in the law’.
He noted that the plaintiff’s allegations did not add to abuse even if they were true, as the boxer ‘never threatened her with force’.
The judge also pointed out that Ms Cecora, who did not file criminal charges against Mr De La Hoya, held a press conference on the day of the opening hearing, which could support the defence’s argument that she was looking for publicity.
The boxer’s lawyer, Judd Burstein, labelled Ms Cecora ‘a prostitute and a grifter’ in court papers and said the boxer had become a ‘changed man’ since the incident.
Tony Evans, lawyer for Ms Cecora, vowed to appeal the verdict, saying: ‘This is just an early round, and one that will not determine the ultimate outcome of the fight.’
Suites at the lavish Ritz-Carlton go for up to an eye-watering $4,500 a night.
Barcelona 1992 Olympic gold medallist De La Hoya, of Los Angeles, California, is worth $175million and generated $700million in pay-per-view TV revenue during his career.
Known as ‘Golden Boy’, his idol is Sugar Ray Leonard and he has a professional record of defeating 17 world champions and winning 10 world titles in six different weights.
His most famous wins were against Mexican great Julio Cesar ‘Caesar of Boxing’ Chavez in 1996 and Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whittaker in 1997. He retired in April 2009 and is now a boxing promoter.
Mr Burstein told the court that De La Hoya began rehabilitation therapy last spring because his life had spiralled out of control.
De La Hoya admitted a cocaine addiction in September and said photos of him from 2007 dressed in fishnets and lingerie were authentic.
De La Hoya’s wife Millie Corretjer, whom he married 10 years ago and has two children with, has not publically commented on the case.
This was the second time De La Hoya has been accused of wearing women’s underwear.
The first woman to do so, Siberian beauty Milana Dravnel, was rumoured to have been paid $20 million to go away in 2008.
