Judge Orders Phone Records in Family Drama Over Kurt Cobain Guitar

LOS ANGELES (CN) – Rock star Courtney Love’s former son-in-law will be able to view the phone records of Love’s former manager, who the son-in-law says burglarized, robbed and kidnapped him in 2016.

On Friday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted Isaiah Silva’s motion to compel Sam Lutfi to hand over his phone records. Silva was previously married to Francis Bean Cobain, the daughter of Love and the late grunge icon Kurt Cobain.

While they were together, Francis Bean Cobain gave Silva her late father’s 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, the seminal instrument used during Nirvana’s 1993 “MTV Unplugged” concert.

Silva says that in June 2016, two men and Lutfi – Love’s business manager – broke into his West Hollywood home and assaulted him. According to Silva’s lawsuit against Love, Lutfi and two other defendants, the intruders banged on his bedroom door claiming to be police officers.

According to Silva, actor Ross Butler of the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” was one of the two men who dragged Silva out of his home and took him away in a black Cadillac Escalade.

At the time of the kidnapping, Silva says a friend was at his home and called the police and tried to block the Escalade with his own car. Police arrived, ordered everyone out of the Escalade and that’s when Silva says Lutfi threatened him and his family’s life if he did not tell the police that they were old college friends and the “kidnapping” was just a joke.

Five days after the incident, Silva filed a police report. He claims he would have been murdered at another location if the LAPD did not intervene that day.

Since the filing of Silva’s lawsuit in May 2018, Love filed a restraining order against Lutfi for what she says was verbal harassment and threats over the phone, text messages and social media.

Lutfi formerly served as a business manager to pop star Britney Spears. He later sued Spears’ parents for defamation over their claims that he preyed on their daughter and cut her off from the rest of her family.

On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock granted Silva’s motion to get Lutfi’s phone records so he can determine who Lutfi was speaking to during the alleged kidnapping. Lutfi was also ordered to pay $2,060 in sanctions and has 21 days to respond to the court’s order.

Previously, Love and Lutfi were represented by the same law firm Lavely & Singer, but Lutfi now represents himself. He was not present in court on Friday and he did not immediately answer an email for comment.

Meanwhile, Silva seeks a protective order banishing Lutfi, Butler and Yan Yukhtman to a separate room during his deposition.

In his initial complaint, Silva said Lutfi threatened Silva to sign a divorce agreement that would give back the guitar to Cobain and Love. Several text messages were included with the complaint in which Lutfi supposedly told Silva “this agreement is your one and only choice, consider it your lifeline.”

In a separate lawsuit, Silva’s girlfriend Jessica Sullivan says she too was threatened by Love and Lutfi for not helping them retrieve the guitar.

On some days, Sullivan claims she received over 40 phone calls and texts from Lutfi, sometimes from multiple phone numbers. In one phone call Lutfi said, “My lawyers and police are after you” and in another he said “Your kid will be in an orphanage” as he threatened to ruin her financially, according to the lawsuit.

Silva says he was gifted the guitar in January 2014, six months before he married Frances Bean Cobain.

A jury trial in Silva’s lawsuit is scheduled to begin October 2020.

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