The lawsuit provides a specific example of Sterling’s alleged impropriety: in 2021, for instance, Sterling told Brunner that she couldn’t meet him on a specific day because she didn’t feel well, only to post a picture to social media showing her in the company of another man, co-defendant Shanta Cotright.
An unusual lawsuit accuses a Las Vegas stripper of having “hoodwinked” an affluent ex-boyfriend out of “millions of dollars” over the course of their decade-long relationship.
According to The Independent, the defendant stripper, Melanie Beth Sterling, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last week. In court filings, Sterling’s attorneys said that the wealthy ex-boyfriend, Fred Brunner, has a long history of “claiming without merit” that she stole millions from him after they met at a Las Vegas club in 2014.
“The parties were in a long-term relationship, which should have concluded with each party going their separate ways,” attorney Jim Jimmerson wrote in the motion to dismiss. “The truth will win this day.”
The lawsuit, set to be adjudicated later this year in Arkansas, where Brunner resides, seeks $3.5 million in compensatory damages and $35 million in punitive damages.
Sterling, along with four other individuals, are named as defendants.
Brunner’s original complaint posits Sterling as an opportunist, emphasizing that Brunner was in the midst of a divorce when he first met Sterling in a Las Vegas strip club. During this first meeting, Sterling, an exotic dancer, gave Brunner a private performance in another room, quickly realizing that he was “far wealthier than her normal patrons—wealthy enough to change her life.”
Brunner and Sterling exchanged numbers and began talking, but the lawsuit says that Sterling’s motivation was insincere and almost entirely predatory.
Over the course of the following decade, Sterling allegedly “hoodwinked” Brunner into thinking that they were in an exclusive relationship, when, in fact, she regularly spent the money he sent her with other men. Before their relationship ended, Sterling reportedly asked for financial support more than 100 times, receiving checks “totaling more than $2.1 million.” Sterling used this money to, among other things, purchase a Las Vegas-area home worth $720,000.
The lawsuit provides a specific example of Sterling’s allegedly impropriety: in 2021, for instance, Sterling told Brunner that she couldn’t meet him on a specific day because she didn’t feel well, only to post a picture to social media showing her in the company of another man, co-defendant Shanta Cotright.
Sterling, in contrast, describes Brunner as a man “generous with his wealth.” Even if Sterling had wanted more out of their relationship, the motion to dismiss says, she “was not naïve” and never believed that the Brunner was “the monogamous type.”
After they parted ways, Brunner—somebody “used to getting what he wanted”—allegedly “begged and pleaded for [Sterling] to come back to him” in 2024.
Sterling refused.
“Mr. Brunner has filed four versions of his complaint against Ms. Sterling—three in Arkansas and now one in Nevada,” attorney Jimmerson said. “Ms. Sterling and Mr. Cotright are confident that the court will appropriately adjudicate this dispute.”
Sources
Lawsuit claims man was defrauded by dancer; her attorney says ex-boyfriend’s suit is sour grapes
Join the conversation!