Courtney Love Sued By Former Son-In-Law’s Ex Claiming Stalking & Emotional Distress
Courtney Love is facing yet another lawsuit tied to daughter Frances Bean Cobain’s messy divorce from her musician ex-husband, Isaiah Silva. In addition to a civil complaint from Silva alleging that Love, former Britney Spears manager Sam Lutfi and 13 Reasons Why actor Ross Butler engaged in a criminal conspiracy to commit trespass, burglary, home invasion, robbery, assault, battery, kidnapping and attempted murder, Love is now also facing a suit from actress Jessica Sullivan, a woman who has a child with Silva.
According to a copy of the suit obtained by Billboard that was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday (June 4), Sullivan is alleging criminal conspiracy, bribery, dissuading a witness, solicitation of perjury, intentional infliction of emotional distress and stalking against Love, Lutfi and a number of other unnamed co-conspirators. It claims that Love, Lutfi and the others “entered into a criminal conspiracy to procure false statements, solicit perjury, and dissuade witnesses whose testimony would contradict [Frances Bean] Cobain’s claims related to the legal ownership” of a 1959 Martin D-18E guitar once owned by her late father, Kurt Cobain, who played it during Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged in New York performance in 1993.
The famed guitar — rumored to be worth millions — is also at the center of the Silva suit, and in Sullivan’s case, the claims focus on allegations that Love, Lutfi and others “advanced the objectives of their conspiracy through a pattern of conduct that included threats, bribes, stalking, intimidation, witness tampering, and dissuasion against Sullivan and her family members as part of an ongoing campaign of intimidation targeting witnesses favorable to Silva in his ongoing divorce litigation with [Frances Bean] Cobain.”
Sullivan’s suit argues that Lutfi and Love tried to bribe Sullivan and others who knew that Frances Bean Cobain had gifted the guitar to Silva by offering them money and professional favors in exchange for their silence and/or false statements supporting Frances Bean’s assertion that she did not intend for Silva to keep the guitar. It cites a phone call from Lutfi to Sullivan on June 4, 2016, in which Lutfi reportedly promised that Love would provide financial security for Sullivan and her daughter with Silva, Arlo, if she agreed to meet with him to discuss Silva’s divorce proceedings and “if she said what he told her to say”; Sullivan claims she declined the offer.
Further examples of the alleged intimidation and threats from Lutfi and Love are laid out, including claims that the pair “relentlessly menaced Sullivan, her family, and friends and threatened them with falsified criminal charges, damage to their careers or employment, civil lawsuits, financial ruin, and or bodily harm,” as well as allegations that Lutfi called or texted Sullivan up to 40 times a day at points. On June 6, 2016, Sullivan’s suit details an epithet-filled threat in which Lutfi allegedly threatened her and her child with homelessness and/or jail if she did not cooperate, adding that around that time she was also placed under surveillance, with Lutfi calling “at all hours” to let her know he was watching her by describing her clothing.
Sullivan also says that Love and Lutfi attempted to drive a wedge between her and Silva, including an instance in which they allegedly used Sullivan’s phone number to create a fake Craigslist ad with a picture of Arlo’s dog that resulted in a barrage of inquires about the free puppy. After she stopped answering the calls from Love and Lutfi, Sullivan claims her social media business suffered, and her acting gigs dried up after she was forced to move from Los Angeles to Orange County.
The suit is seeking damages as well as a jury trial. A source close to Love tells Billboard, “The family is prepared to fight this nonsense with a fury of unprecedented legal force, and they will prevail.”
This article originally appeared on Billboard.