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John Travolta’s first accuser drops out of sexual-battery lawsuit

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John Travolta saw life get one John Doe easier Tuesday when the man who first accused him of sexual battery dropped out of the federal lawsuit he’d filed against the actor.

John Doe No. 1, a masseur, had in graphic detail accused Travolta of sexual battery and more in a civil suit filed May 4. Things got complicated, however, when evidence piled up the following week indicating the actor had been in New York the day his accuser alleged he committing sexual harassment in Beverly Hills

Attorney Okorie Okorocha, who said Friday that he was no longer representing John Doe No. 1, filed the notice of dismissal without prejudice Tuesday.

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John Doe No. 2, another masseur whose accusations of improper sexual behavior at an Atlanta resort in April were added to the suit in a May 7 amendment, is still suing.

Okorocha and John Doe No. 1 had “differences in opinion of how to handle the case,” the attorney told People on Tuesday. Earlier, talking to Radar Online about his intent to file for the dismissal, he’d explained, “I could no longer represent him because he was speaking to the media against my advice, and it made no sense to me. I don’t think that John Doe will be pursuing the lawsuit.”

John Doe No. 1 released a wordy statement to Radar on Thursday asking that people reserve judgment and let a court decide the case — at the same time wishing good health and happiness for his opponents — only to have unnamed sources tell the website the next day that a “miscalculation” had been made and the massage therapist had admitted getting the date wrong.

A Travolta rep initially called the first accusation “a complete fabrication and fiction,” and Travolta attorney Martin Singer has maintained since then that various emerging allegations are, among other things, “absurd and ridiculous.”

Also in the mix but not part of any lawsuit: an accusation by former cruise-ship employee Fabian Zanzi that a naked Travolta hugged him and offered $12,000 for sex during a 2009 cruise — a proposition not detailed in the disciplinary notice that resulted after Zanzi told management that he’d conversed with and given a neck massage to a VIP guest in violation of company fraternization rules.

Additionally, a fourth man who reportedly said Saturday that Travolta had been banned from a New York hotel spa in the early 2000s has since claimed he was misquoted.

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Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.

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