Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz denied he tried to extort millions of dollars from Woody Allen to get Mia Farrow to drop her child-abuse allegations.
"That is not the kind of lawyer I am," the defense attorney for such figures as Mike Tyson, Leona Helmsley and Claus von Bulow testified Thursday in the couple's child-custody dispute.Allen's lawyer, Irwin Tenenbaum, testified last week that Dershowitz proposed "a down-and-dirty settlement" last August in which Farrow would drop the child-abuse allegations in return for $5 million to $8 million from Allen.
Tenenbaum said the deal was laid out at a meeting between lawyers for both sides shortly after Farrow accused Allen of molesting their 7-year-old daughter Dylan.
Dershowitz aknowledged that the possibility of a lump-sum payment was discussed, but insisted it was only so the estranged lovers wouldn't have to deal with each other as they tried to settle the dispute out of court.
Both sides have said a panel of sex abuse experts from Yale-New Haven Hospital cleared Allen of the sex abuse charges. The sealed report has been given to Connecticut prosecutors.