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University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell said Wednesday in a federal court filing that Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz should stay out of a victims' rights lawsuit that claims a teenage girl was forced to be a "sex slave" for powerful people — including Dershowitz.

In a response to Dershowitz's request to intervene in the federal suit so he can ask that the allegations against him be stricken from the court record, Cassell and Florida attorney Bradley Edwards argue that the Harvard professor can "litigate his reputational interests" in another forum.

The pair point out that they have filed a suit in a Florida state court accusing Dershowitz of defaming them by, among other comments, repeatedly calling them "two sleazy, unprofessional, disbarable lawyers" in media interviews.

Cassell and Edwards also allege in their filing that Dershowitz "completely ignored" a request made earlier in January that he submit to a deposition in the victims' rights case regarding his alleged participation in the abuse of underage girls, "while simultaneously continuing to publicly protest his inability to challenge the allegations against him in a legal proceeding."

Cassell, a former federal judge in Utah, and Edwards are representing four women who allege violations of the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA) in the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein, a Florida billionaire financier.

The women claim in a lawsuit that they had been child victims of sex-trafficking crimes committed by Epstein and had the right under the CVRA to confer with prosecutors and to be heard at public proceedings regarding any plea or sentence.

Instead, they allege, the government secretly negotiated an agreement that precluded any federal prosecution in the case. Epstein pleaded guilty in state court in Florida to two counts of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and served 13 months in prison before being released in 2009.

The alleged victims want the plea deal rescinded.

The lawsuit was filed in 2008 in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Fla., by two of the alleged victims, called Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2. The dispute between the women's lawyers and Dershowitz was sparked by a Jan. 2 filing asking that two other women, Jane Doe #3 and Jane Doe #4, be allowed to join the suit.

An affidavit from Jane Doe #3 alleges she was forced as a girl to be a "sex slave" and was made available to Dershowitz — who was part of Epstein's legal team — and Britain's Prince Andrew, a son of Queen Elizabeth II. Both men have denied the allegations.

On Jan. 5, Dershowitz filed his motion to intervene in the victims' rights suit and filed a declaration saying he never had sexual contact of any kind with Jane Doe #3. Cassell and Edwards filed the defamation suit against Dershowitz on Jan. 6 in Florida state court in Broward County.

On Wednesday, in addition to their response to the motion to intervene, Cassell and Edwards filed another affidavit by Jane Doe #3 that gives details of her alleged abuse by Epstein, Dershowitz and Andrew. The attorneys say her sworn account, given Monday, is consistent with "compelling corroborating evidence."

In her affidavit, Jane Doe #3, now 31, said she wanted to be a veterinarian when she was growing up in Palm Beach, Fla., but her life took a turn "when adults began to be interested in having sex with me." When she was 15, she met a woman who asked her to come to Epstein's mansion to learn how to perform massages, according to Jane Doe #3.

But instead of being trained in massage, she was forced to have sex with Epstein, Jane Doe #3 said in her affidavit. From the beginning, she was frightened of Epstein, who she knew could have her killed if she did not obey him, she said.

She visited and traveled with Epstein as his sex slave from 1999 through the summer of 2002, Jane Doe #3 said, and also had sex with his friends at his demand. She had sex with Dershowitz at least a half-dozen times, first when she was about 16, according to her affidavit.

"I have recently seen a former Harvard law professor identified as Alan Dershowitz on television calling me a 'liar,' " Jane Doe #3 said. "He is lying by denying that he had sex with me. That man is the same man that I had sex with at least six times."

Jane Doe #3 said her credibility has been attacked since the motion was filed requesting that she be allowed to join the victims rights suit.

"I am telling the truth and will not let these attacks prevent me from exposing the truth of how I was trafficked for sex to many powerful people," Jane Doe #3 said. "These powerful people seem to think that they don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else. That is wrong."

Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC