Jamie Lynn Decoy Not LAX About Legal Action

"Fake Jamie Lynn Spears" threatens to file suit against LAX Police Department, saying she didn't consent to being a decoy for the teen star

By Natalie Finn Jan 06, 2009 11:44 PMTags
Jamie Lynn SpearsFame Pictures

News flash! Not every girl wants to be Jamie Lynn Spears.

A young woman selected by police to trick the paparazzi assembled at Los Angeles International Airport for the recently hatched teen's arrival back in September is threatening to sue the LAX Police Department—because apparently she didn't agree to pose as the younger Spears sister.

Counsel for the would-be plaintiff, Adessa Eskridge, is demanding $2 million to fully compensate for the "humiliation, fear and harassment" Eskridge suffered when she deplaned and, without prior knowledge of what awaited, walked right into the flashbulb jungle. (View the damages claim.)

At the time, an LAX-PD spokesman told E! News that the department was opening an internal investigation because "it is not the policy or practice for Airport Police to provide a celebrity decoy."

A police source also told us that the officers who conceived the plan "didn't clear what they were doing with all the supervisors and they may get in trouble."

Per the claim and attached letter, dated Sept. 30, Eskridge agreed to assist the police, but had no idea what she was actually signing up for.

"Ms. Eskridge had no idea and was NEVER informed that upon deplaning, she would be mobbed by the paparazzi, that she would be in fear of her well-being, that her picture would be taken, that video of her would be all over the world-wide-web as well as being played and replayed on TMZ...who, as LAX-PD is aware, is stationed at LAX full time," wrote Marina Del Ray-based attorney R.J. Molligan.

Furthermore, Eskridge "had no idea that her privacy would be invaded and her identity made synonymous with 'fake Jamie Lynn Spears—a nobody,'" Molligan continued.

The attorney states that her allegedly manipulated subsequently harassed by the media, which wanted to know all about her rule in the, well... in the "fake Jamie Lynn Spears" todo.

Jamie Lynn, who with her infant daughter Maddie Briann in tow got to leave the airport via the tarmac right away—and yes, avoid the shutterbug scrum—was in L.A. to spend some quality time with sister Britney and their parents. 

Eskridge's claim stated that her legal camp was "not yet aware of whether Ms. Spears or her agents were involved in the ruse."

Additional reporting by Whitney English and Claudia Rosenbaum

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