BENTON - Ten celebrities claimed Oz nightclub in Sauget misappropriated their images and Carmen Electra claims the Pony club across from Cape Girardeau misappropriated hers.
Their counsel Joseph Casas filed suits against Oz and Pony at U.S. district court on Feb. 27 alleging false association, false advertising and negligence.
He claimed unauthorized use of images deprived plaintiffs of income they are owed.
He claimed negative connotations of association with Oz and Pony injured their reputations.
He sought actual damages, punitive damages, and an injunction.
He stated Carmen Electra, also known as Tara Leigh Patrick, resides in Los Angeles County.
According to Wikipedia, Prince produced her self titled album at Paisley Park in 1993.
In 1997, she portrayed Lani Mackenzie on television’s Baywatch.
In that year she began a film career as Roxanne in Good Burger.
She’s appeared in Scary Movie and dozens of other films, most recently Good Burger 2.
According to the complaint, she has five million Facebook followers and a million on Instagram.
The complaint also sought damages for Playboy playmate Tiffany Gray of Orange County also known as Tiffany Toth.
Casas claimed she has 3.7 million followers on Facebook and 1.2 million on Instagram.
He claimed she sells real estate and owns part of a restaurant.
The suit against Oz and owner Jay Dinkelmann sought damages for Claudia Sampedro of Miami, wife of former Packer defensive end Julius Peppers.
Casas also represents Dessie Pilek also known as Dessie Mitcheson, the main ring girl for Mayweather v. Pacquiao with more than 100 million worldwide viewers.
“This exposure triggered a huge demand for her modeling services," he wrote.
He also represents Janet Guzman, Paola Canas, Rosa Acosta, Sandra Valencia, Monica Leigh Burkhardt, Jessica Hinton also known as Jessa Hinton, Gallienne Nabila and Stephanie Rao.
In both complaints Casas claimed good will and reputation are critical to maximizing income potential of models.
“Plaintiffs are necessarily selective concerning the companies and brands for which they model," he wrote.
He claimed Oz and Pony intentionally altered the images they misappropriated to make it appear the models worked at the clubs or endorsed them.
He claimed in certain cases the images came from the social media pages the models used to grow their fan bases.
The clerk assigned Senior District Judge Phil Gilbert to the Oz action and District Judge Staci Yandle to the Pony action.