Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Second Suit Alleges Courtney Love Made Violent Threats

In the continued saga surrounding rock star Kurt Cobain’s guitar, a woman says she was stalked and threatened by Courtney Love for not helping her retrieve the instrument from her daughter’s ex-husband, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

LOS ANGELES (CN) – In the continued saga surrounding rock star Kurt Cobain’s guitar, a woman says she was stalked and threatened by Courtney Love for not helping her retrieve the instrument from her daughter’s ex-husband, according to a lawsuit filed in state court on Monday.

The lawsuit comes less than two weeks after Love’s ex-son-in-law, Isaiah Silva, ex-husband of Frances Bean Cobain, sued Love over an alleged incident that took place in June 2016, where two men, including actor Ross Butler of the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” and Love’s business manager, Sam Lutfi, broke into his West Hollywood home and “burglarized, robbed, assaulted, sexually battered, kidnapped and attempted to murder him,” according to an 86-page complaint filed on May 25.

Silva has a child with Jessica Sullivan, who alleges she was threatened by Love and Lutfi for not helping them secure the guitar, according to Sullivan’s complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Silva was allegedly gifted the guitar by Frances Bean Cobain. The instrument was played by her father, Kurt Cobain during Nirvana’s legendary “MTV Unplugged” concert in November 1993. The following year Cobain committed suicide at his Seattle, Washington home.

The Martin guitar is believed to be worth millions of dollars. Silva said it was gifted to him in January 2014, six months before he married Frances Bean Cobain, according to his lawsuit against Love. The two later divorced and the guitar was claimed by Silva during divorce proceedings, much to the dismay of Love.

Sullivan said she received threatening phone calls and text messages from Love and Lutfi for not helping them in their efforts to get the guitar. She alleges she received those threats over several weeks from June to July 2016, according to her 32-page complaint.

In her lawsuit, Sullivan said that Love and Lutfi “attempted to bribe” people with “money and professional favors in exchange for their silence and or false statements” that would support Frances Bean Cobain’s claim that the guitar was not gifted to Silva.

Lutfi and Love threatened and harassed her family and friends, including loud bangs at her front door in the middle of the night and suspicious cars parked in front of her home, according to the complaint.

On some days, Sullivan alleges she received over 40 phone calls and texts from Lutfi and 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.

She says due to all the harassment she was forced to relocate to a neighboring county and put her acting career on hiatus. Sullivan's daughter was 8 years old at the time of the harassment, according to the complaint.

The day before Sullivan was initially contacted by Love’s camp, Silva alleges that Lufti, Butler and Yan Yukhtman broke into Silva’s home and banged on his bedroom door, saying that they were with the Los Angeles Police Department. Silva claims he was later dragged out of his home and taken away in a black Cadillac Escalade.

One of Silva’s friends at his home at the time called the police and attempted to block the Escalade with his own vehicle. Silva said Lutfi threatened him and his family’s life if he did not convince the police that the men were old college friends and the kidnapping was part of a prank, according to Silva’s complaint.

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

Sullivan is suing Love and Lutfi for emotional distress and stalking and is represented by Douglas Unger and Stanton Mathews of Mathews Nissen.

Categories / Courts, Criminal, Entertainment

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...