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Geoffrey Fieger and Mike Morse
A sexual assault lawsuit filed against personal injury attorney Mike Morse has been dismissed by a judge who says the accuser lied about receiving montly payments from a sugar daddy.
Lawyer for Morse say the accuser was motivated to sue after payments from the sugar daddy dried up.
Renee Swain alleged Morse grabbed her breast at a Farmington Hills restaurant last year as the two took a selfie. She had sought $10 million in damages.
By concealing the monthly $5,000 to $10,000 payments she received from a male friend, Swain “apparently just wanted to hide the truth, which was detrimental to her case and potentially embarrassing,” Oakland County Circuit Judge Phyllis McMillen wrote in her ruling. Morse’s attorney, Deb Gordon, says the payments to Swain stopped the month she sued Morse, “providing a motive for her to set him up to obtain money.” Gordon says bank records show Swain collected nearly $300,000.
Swain, a former stripper, was the first of five accusers represented by attorney Geoffrey Fieger — another high-profile lawyer who also handles personal injury cases — to come forward last year with allegations that Morse sexually assaulted them. Four of the five cases have been dismissed.
Gordon has calls the series of claims “a sham designed to bring attention to Fieger and to smear and harass Morse, who Fieger fears as a competitor.”
She adds that Fieger attempted to deliberately conceal information about the payments to Swain by filing a motion to quash a subpoena for her bank records.
A representative for Fieger did not immediately return a request for comment.
