A celebrity manager who allegedly conspired with an actor to kidnap Courtney Love’s son-in-law in 2016 to try to recover a prized Kurt Cobain guitar must turn over copies of all electronic communications he had the night of the incident, a judge ruled Friday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock also fined Osama “Sam” Lutfi $2,060 for his alleged delays in responding to requests for the records from Douglas Unger, attorney for plaintiff Isaiah Silva, and for Unger’s expenses in preparing the motion. Unger had sought $6,060.
Lutfi, who is acting as his own attorney, did not appear in court Friday.
The complaint filed in May 2018 alleges that in June 2016, Lutfi, actor Ross Butler and another man, Yan Yukhtman, broke into Silva’s West Hollywood home and banged on his bedroom door, saying that they were members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Silva claims he was later dragged out of his home and taken away in a black Cadillac Escalade.
Unger alleges that Love told Lutfi and others to use threats in order to convince Silva to agree to a settlement agreement to return the guitar and concur with her other demands. Love, now 55, was once married to Cobain.
Unger further alleges Love was the mastermind of the actions against his client and that attorney Marc Gans told Lutfi not to let Silva leave the home until the settlement paperwork was completed.
Unger stated in his court papers that the communications — most of which consist of phone records — will show with whom Lutfi was in contact before, during and after the alleged attack on Silva.
The 1959 Martin D-18E guitar was used during Nirvana’s iconic “MTV Unplugged in New York” performance in 1993. Cobain committed suicide the next year.
Since Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, filed for divorce from Silva in 2016, the guitar has been the subject of public interest and a contested issue in their marital split. A family law judge awarded the instrument to Silva.
Love and Lutfi later had a falling-out and she obtained a temporary restraining order against him in December 2018, alleging he was harassing her and her family through emails, texts and phone calls.
Last June, Judge Brenda Penny issued a five-year restraining order forbidding Lutfi from contacting Britney Spears or her family or making disparaging statements about them online. Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, testified that Lutfi, who served briefly as his daughter’s manager, has been harassing his family for years and that his conduct had recently resumed.