Yahoo Sports 
Allegations of Oilers owner Daryl Katz paying underage ballerina for sex dropped
Allegations that Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz paid an underage ballerina for sex were dropped from a U.S. civil suit earlier this month.
Both Katz and Sage Humphries — the dancer in question — have denied ever having a sexual relationship.
The allegations were made by dance teacher Mitchell Taylor Button and his wife as part of the couple's defence against a sexual abuse lawsuit launched by seven aspiring ballerinas in 2021. The Buttons voluntarily dismissed their claims after being shown evidence that the allegations were not true.
Their claim alleged Humphries had been involved in three prior sexual relationships as an underage teen with much older men, including Katz. It also claimed Katz had paid Humphries $75,000 for "her sexual favours."
The Buttons' lawyer, Marc Randazza apologized for any harm the false accusations caused and issued the following statement, which Yahoo Sports was sent a copy of:
“Dusty and Mitchell Button made their allegations based on their understanding of information provided to them by Sage Humphries. They even double checked her year of birth with reliable third party sources. Nevertheless, Mr. Katz’s counsel provided the Buttons with credible evidence that key allegations were not true, and these sources were all wrong.
"Based on this credible evidence, Dusty Button and Mitchell Button have dismissed their claims against Daryl Katz. I want to personally apologize for any harm the erroneous factual claims may have caused to Mr. Katz and his family. We brought the claims in good faith, but the moment I doubted the ability to maintain them, I took corrective action and asked the court to strike all relevant references from the record.
"Nobody should repeat those allegations in any context without noting that they have been withdrawn and repudiated.”
More from Yahoo Sports
