By Editor,Emma Richter,Nic White

Copyright dailymail

A Las Vegas stripper shrugged off her rich elderly lover’s claim that she two-timed him and plotted to ‘defraud him out of millions of dollars.’

Melanie Sterling, 49, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against her by Fred Brunner, her ex-boyfriend.

Brunner, 62, sued Sterling, born Melanie Slutzky, in June 2024 claiming she ‘hoodwinked’ him after spotting him all alone at a strip club and bleeding him of $3.5 million.

But, last week, Sterling’s attorney Jim Jimmerson said Brunner, of Arkansas, has a history of ‘claiming without merit’ that his client knowingly took his money after they met at a strip club in Sin City in 2014.

As part of the original legal filing, Brunner claimed his ex-partner told him on December 8, 2020 that she was experiencing ‘stomach issues’ and feeling ‘unwell’ before posting a photo of her and another man, Shanta Cotright, ‘eating lobster at The Capital Grille.’

Brunner never lived in the same home, was never engaged and never got married to Sterling – meaning she owes him nothing, per her response.

‘Plaintiff alleges that he fell victim to a 10-year relationship scam,’ her motion, obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, read.

‘Haven’t we all,’ Sterling said, appearing to laugh off the lawsuit against her. ‘The difference is that everyone else does not sue their ex claiming that they were duped into spending money on them when the relationship does not work out in the end.’

Jimmerson said last week he’s confident ‘the truth’ will prevail in this case.

‘The parties were in a long-term relationship, which should have concluded with each party going their separate ways,’ he said on behalf of Sterling. ‘The truth will win the day.’

The legal dispute was slated to be resolved in Brunner’s home state of Arkansas, but a judge there ruled it should be heard in Nevada.

A hearing over the latest motion to dismiss the case is set for October 21 in Clark County District Court.

According to Brunner’s lawsuit, Sterling convinced him to buy them a $72,000 house in Vegas, where they could live together and split the proceeds if they split up.

She then squirreled that money away in a trust so Brunner couldn’t get his hands on it, the lawsuit claimed.

Brunner claimed Sterling was secretly in a relationship with another man for the whole 10 years they were seeing each other, until he found out in January of that year.

His lawsuit demanded the $3.5 million back along with his half of the house, and $35 million in punitive damages from Sterling and 20 unnamed co-conspirators.

Brunner’s lawsuit described how after his marriage to Elizabeth Stensgaard began to break down in January 2014, he found himself in Las Vegas that June.

‘Given his emotional distress, [he] decided to go to a gentlemen’s club to smoke a cigar and have a few cocktails… he sat alone at his table, lit his cigar and began ordering drinks,’ the lawsuit recalled.

Sterling noticed he was sitting alone ‘wearing nice clothing, an expensive watch, and likely in a vulnerable state given his lack of company’ and ‘locked on’ to him, the filing read.

‘She did what all such adult dancers presumably do in their profession’ and prioritized the patrons likely to spend the most money,’ the lawsuit claimed.

Brunner claimed Sterling knew ‘from her experience’ that he was the best kind of customer ‘to take advantage of.’

Sterling then led him by the hand to a back room for a private dance and listened as he spilled his guts about his marital woes, the lawsuit claimed.

That made him ‘vulnerable to her allurement’ and marked him as ‘her primary target for a much more profitable enterprise.’

‘Sterling learned that [Brunner] was far wealthier than her normal patrons – wealthy enough to change her life,’ the lawsuit claimed.

They exchanged phone numbers and started texting, Sterling ‘pretending to be a shoulder to cry on,’ and eventually became romantic, per the lawsuit.

Sterling soon became his primary support as he complained about his ‘exceedingly complex, litigious, and outright draining’ divorce.

‘As time went on, Sterling had hoodwinked [Brunner] into thinking they were in an exclusive, romantic relationship’, and she started asking for cash, the lawsuit claimed.

Brunner frequently visited her in Las Vegas and took her on ‘extravagant’ holidays where he ‘footed the bill for everything.’

The lawsuit detailed how Sterling sent thousands of texts, chatted to him in long, romantic phone calls, and told him she loved him.

She also sent him romantic cards in the mail and left love notes when they were together – making him think ‘she was the love of his life,’ the lawsuit stated.

The stripper’s act became so convincing that she met the most important people in his life and even became a ‘grandmother figure’ to his grandchildren, Brunner claimed.

The lawsuit detailed how Brunner gave her ‘exorbitant’ amounts of cash along with gifts, paying for her expenses and cosmetic surgeries.

Sterling then told him she wanted a house where they could live together in Las Vegas, and they also decided to build one in Arkansas so they could live between the two states, the lawsuit read.

Brunner claimed he agreed to buy the house on the condition that she would maintain and improve it while he was away, and they would sell the home and split the proceeds if they ever broke up.

He bought the 4,980sqft, six-bedroom, 5.5 bathroom newly built house on El Malpais Street for $720,000 on September 23, 2019.

The house is estimated to now be worth about $1.28 million.

Brunner claimed he agreed to put the house in Sterling’s name because she was worried that if he died, his children could try to take it from her in court.

However, just a week after the house was settled, Sterling secretly transferred it into a trust in her name, which Brunner claimed was a scheme to stop him from accessing it financially, the lawsuit said.

Daily Mail contacted Sterling, her attorney, Brunner and his lawyer for comment.