Judge says suit against Andrew can go forward

NEW YORK — A judge has — for now — refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Britain’s Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17.

Stressing Wednesday that he wasn’t ruling on the truth of the allegations, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew’s lawyers that Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince.

Kaplan said the $500,000 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre didn’t involve the prince and didn’t bar a suit against him now.

Giuffre sued the 61-year-old Andrew in August, saying she was coerced into sexual encounters with him in 2001 by Epstein and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.