Lawsuit Alleges Lindsay Got Tipsy Before '05 Crash

Lindsay Lohan has been accused of knocking back a few before smashing up her Mercedes in 2005.

That's what the driver of the van Lohan hit is saying now, anyway. Raymundo Ortega sued the actress and celebrity hot spot the Ivy for negligence Thursday, claiming that Lohan got drunk at lunch before running into his vehicle, which in turn struck a parked van.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, a then 19-year-old Lohan "consumed alcohol and became intoxicated" Oct. 4, 2005, at the West Hollywood eatery, which is on Robertson Blvd., and then sped away from the restaurant while "looking over her shoulder instead of watching the road." She then crashed into Ortega's van.

"On information and belief, Lohan was also driving while intoxicated," the suit states. (View the complaint.)

By Oct. 5, however, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department had ruled out alcohol as being a factor in the crash.

"She was sober," Lohan's publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, told E! Online Thursday.

At the time, Zelnik said that the Mean Girls star was avoiding some overly aggressive photographers—a frequent fixture around the Ivy—and called it "another example of the paparazzi endangering citizens."

The accident turned out to be one of several smashups Lohan was involved in during the past two years that appeared to involve an overzealous shutterbug or two, including one on May 31, 2005, in which a lensman intentionally rammed into her car near the Beverly Center shopping mall.

But while the Sheriff's Department determined that the paparazzi did not factor into the collision, a sheriff's spokesman also called Lohan, who was treated for minor injuries afterward, an "innocent victim" because Ortega made an illegal U-turn right in front of her.

Ortega, meanwhile, claims in his lawsuit that Lohan had become "hypersensitive to paparazzi and attempts to photograph her in public" and as a result "engaged in a habit, custom, and practice of reckless driving."

He told Access Hollywood after the crash that he knew the accident wasn't his fault and that Lohan had to have been driving at least 75 miles per hour. In his complaint, he alleges she was going approximately 60 mph.

The plaintiff is seeking at least $200,000 in damages to cover "the loss of his automobile, lost wages, medical bills and pain and suffering," per court documents.

Lohan, who's currently completing a 30-day treatment program to kick addictions to alcohol and drugs, including the painkiller OxyContin, at Promises in Malibu, was also sued last month in small claims court by the owner of the van Ortega hit. The CEO of Grandeur Inc. is asking for more than $3,000 to cover vehicular damages.

The rehabbing starlet was cited May 26 on suspicion of driving under the influence after an early morning crash in Beverly Hills.

Sources told E! News Thursday that the Beverly Hills Police Department is expected to be able to identify by next Thursday or Friday the "usable amount" of "additional contraband" that was discovered at the time, which was preliminarily identified as cocaine. Police spokesman Lieutenant Mitch McCann said that Lohan was not carrying the substance but declined to say where it was found.

In an unrelated (and yet related) matter, Zelnik also issued a statement to TMZ in response to a lascivious report in the British tabloid News of the World, in which a self-proclaimed former bodyguard of Lohan's claims he quit working for her because she was too wild, going on to list some pretty wild accusations.

"It's deeply unfortunate that this person has deluded himself into thinking that he worked for Lindsay for a long period of time," Zelnik said. "This is a cynical and ugly attempt on his part to cash in on Lindsay's fame."

TMZ reports that this man, Lee Weaver, filled in for another member of Lohan's security detail in the spring of 2006 for 10 days, receiving $3,500 for his efforts.