A Massachusetts woman is suing a man who rented her seasonal Martha’s Vineyard home, accusing him of secretly allowing the residence to be used as a set to film at least 24 pornographic videos.
According to the Boston Globe, Leah Bassett claimed in the lawsuit that she rented her home out to Joshua Spafford under false pretenses. Bassett said that Spafford, a photographer and videographer of adult films, failed to disclose that he would be using the home as a shooting location.
Documents filed in U.S. District Court this week claim that Spafford rented the fully-furnished home from October 2014 to May 2015. The Vineyard Gazette reported that Spafford was employed by Monica Jensen, (also known as Nica Noelle) an adult film writer and director working for pornography production company Mile High Media.
It’s not immediately known if Bassett knew if Spafford was employed by an adult film company. However, the lawsuit focuses is concerned with the allegations that the tenant used a residential home for commercial purposes without the homeowner’s consent.
In March 2015, Spafford reportedly informed Bassett via email that Jensen had fired him and that he had vacated the home. The lawsuit said that Bassett had her parents, who lived on the same street, inspect the home and that they were “shocked by the deplorable state of condition” and called local police to investigate the residence.
Days later, two strangers were spotted unpacking groceries in the Martha’s Vineyard home. The strangers told Bassett’s mother that Spafford had moved out and that they would be taking on the remaining two months on his lease, the Globe reported.
The lawsuit said that it wasn’t until May that Bassett saw her home for herself and “independently made the highly disturbing discovery that her personal residence had been used during the leasehold for the commercial production of graphic pornography.”
The homeowner was reportedly horrified to learn that explicit photographs and videos posted online featured furniture and artwork located in the residence. According to the suit, actors appearing in the film “publicly boasted about their porn shoots on chic and tony Martha’s Vineyard.”
The Globe wrote that Bassett claimed she was never told that her home would be used to by him and his employer to shoot commercial porn, thus violating his lease.
In addition to Spafford, Basset listed Mile High Distribution Inc. and associates (including Jensen) and two other pornography distribution companies in her lawsuit.
Stephen A. Roach, an attorney representing three of the defendants, Jensen, Mile High, and a third person/entity he declined to name, said the recently-filed lawsuit was born out of a “basic landlord-tenant dispute.”
“The allegations are unfounded,” Roach, who is not representing Spafford, told the Globe Wednesday in a brief phone interview.
Aside from damages, Bassett is requesting that TLA Entertainment Group, the company selling the videos supposedly featuring her home, stop selling the footage unless they obtain a rental agreement which allows them to use the residence for commercial purposes.
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