BROOKLYN (CN) - Lawyers laid out Lindsay Lohan's rap sheet to defend hip-hop artist Pitbull against a lawsuit from Lohan, who claimed the rapper inflicted emotional distress by mocking her in a hit song that includes the lyric, "locked up like Lindsay Lohan." Pitbull says Lohan should not have sued him in Long Island because she has lived in California since 2004.
In the eighth of 23 stanzas in "Give Me Everything," Pitbull (Armando Christian Perez) raps: "Hustlers move beside us / So I'm tip-toeing to keep blowing / I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan."
Lohan sued Perez and his producers in August, seeking injunctive relief and damages for emotional distress, in Nassau County Court, Long Island, where she claimed to be a resident in a sworn affidavit.
She actually has lived in California since 2004, Pitbull says.
"The objective indicia demonstrate that Ms. Lohan is domiciled in California. She possesses a California driver's license; currently leases a home in Venice Beach, California; was incarcerated in a California prison prior to being placed under house arrest from May to June of 2011; spends the majority of her time in California, and generally employs California professionals to attend to her legal and professional affairs," according to the notice of removal.
The document also details the criminal cases tying Lohan to California.
"In fact, given her frequent legal troubles, Ms. Lohan possesses irrevocable ties to California that are likely to keep her there for the foreseeable future. Since 2007, Ms. Lohan has twice been charged with driving under the influence, as well as with felony possession of cocaine. These offenses, combined with her subsequent parole violations, have resulted in Ms. Lohan being incarcerated in California jails at least three (3) times over the past four (4) years. More recently, on May 11, 2011, Ms. Lohan pled no contest to charges of misdemeanor theft for stealing a necklace worth approximately $2,500.00 from a store near her home in Venice Beach, California. This incident resulted in a 120-day incarceration and 480 community service hours sentence. Due to prison overcrowding in Los Angeles County, California, Ms. Lohan completed her jail sentence by serving a thirty-five (35) day house arrest in her Venice Beach, California apartment. Ms. Lohan's house arrest ended on June 29, 2011.
"Ms. Lohan, however, failed to comply with her community service obligations, resulting in the California Superior Court's revocation of her parole on October 19, 2011. On November 2, 2011, the California Superior Court sentenced Ms. Lohan to 30 days in jail, commencing November 7, 2011, due to her failure to make meaningful progress toward completing her 360 hours of community service at the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center and 120 hours at the Los Angeles County Morgue, which were supposed to be completed in California by approximately June 2012. Ms. Lohan can avoid serving an additional 270 days in jail if she completes additional community service hours. Thus, in light of Ms. Lohan's continuing obligations to the State of California, as well as the foregoing facts, Ms. Lohan is a citizen of California, not New York," the document states.
Cases with plaintiffs and defendants in different jurisdictions, with demands of more than $75,000, are typically tried in federal court.
"According to the verified complaint, Ms. Lohan seeks a 'substantial sum of money' in compensatory damages for the defendants' alleged 'unwarranted, unauthorized, and unfavorable mention of plaintiffs name and personality, and allusions to plaintiffs physical and mental character.' ... According to the verified complaint, the song 'greatly injured the plaintiff in her profession as an entertainer,' and caused her great mental anguish and pain.
"Ms. Lohan further alleges that the song at issue 'was and is a popular song of an international reputation and exerts a great influence throughout the United States, and other countries, in the television, entertainment business and field of communication as well.' ... The song has indeed been very successful: hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100; spending over 28 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100; and selling over 3,000,000 digital downloads in the United States alone as of August 2011. Thus - and irrespective of the actual merits of her claim - from Ms. Lohan's vantage and by virtue of the Song's indisputable popularity, the claimed damages exceed $75,000.00 and satisfy the jurisdictional requirement diversity jurisdiction," the document states.
Other defendants include Shaffer Chimere Smith Jr. aka Ne-Yo; Nick Van De Wall aka Afrojack; J Records; Sony Music Entertainment; Sony Music Holdings; RCA Music Group; Polo Grounds Music; and Polo Grounds Music Publishing.
Pitbull is represented by Marcos Daniel Jimenez with Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman in Miami, and Sarah Gibbs Leivick in New York City.
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