Puka Nacua’s attorney is firing back against a woman who alleged the star Rams receiver made an antisemitic comment and bit her during a New Year’s Eve gathering, claiming the allegations are an attempt at a money grab.
In response to Madison Atiabi seeking a restraining order against Nacua, 24, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, attorney Levi McCathern said the two-time Pro Bowler “denies these allegations in the strongest possible terms” and his team “will be filing a defamation lawsuit and pursuing all available legal remedies in response to these false and damaging statements.”
“Let’s be clear about what this case is — and what it is not. This matter is not sexual in nature, nor does it involve any allegation of domestic violence. If it did, the filings would look very different. They do not. It also doesn’t involve any elements of antisemitism. A completely sober witness has stated unequivocally that Puka never made the comments Ms. Atiabi claims,” McCathern said in a statement obtained by TMZ.
Atiabi alleged in her filing that during the dinner on Dec. 31, 2025, Nacua was “extremely touchy with the girls and had said ‘F–k all the Jews’ in the course of his conversation when he was at the other side of the table.”
Atiabi, who said in the filing she is Jewish, “was immediately offended and emotionally distressed.”
As the night continued, it’s alleged in the documents Nacua “began behaving in a strange, erratic, and physically intrusive manner.”
He’s accused of biting the thumb of Atiabi’s girlfriend and also biting Atiabi “on her left shoulder, on the scapula, with such massive force to leave a complete circular impression of all of his teeth as marks on her skin,” according to the restraining order request.
In the weeks following the alleged incident, Atiabi claims she and her attorney, along with Nacua, McCathern and the athlete’s “crisis team,” met for a March mediation conference, with Nacua’s team allegedly threatening to “contact TMZ and other press and media outlets and to disseminate false, inaccurate, and/or deliberately exaggerated public statements about the events of December 31, 2025,” the outlet reported.
McCathern pushed back, suggesting it’s a shakedown.
“In the months that followed, our office was contacted with demands for millions of dollars in exchange for not publicizing these allegations. That is not a legitimate legal claim — it is blackmail,” the statement read.
“The timing of the claimant’s recent legal action — nearly three months after the alleged incident and just says after JSN [Seahawks wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba] record breaking [$168 million] contract as a wide receiver — further underscores the complete lack of credibility behind these accusations.
“Puka denies these allegations in the strongest possible terms. We will be filing a defamation lawsuit and pursuing all available legal remedies in response to these false and damaging statements.”
The California Post reported Tuesday a judge has denied Atiabi’s restraining order request temporarily, with a hearing set for April 14.
Their request made to McCathern for comment was not immediately returned.
Nacua, the Rams’ fifth-round pick in 2023, apologized this past December when he agreed on a livestream to perform a touchdown celebration that featured an antisemitic trope.
