A skin care guru acquitted in January for trying to kill a business rival slapped Los Angeles County police with a lawsuit claiming a botched investigation and evidence provided by her stalker led to her suffering in jail for 10 months, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives claimed Dawn DaLuise, whose clients included Jennifer Aniston and Nicki Minaj, sent text messages to a football player in an attempt to solicit him to kill her business rival, Smooth Cheeks owner Gabriel Suarez.
But according to DaLuise's lawsuit filed last week, out of 6,000 of her text messages, only two made a reference to Suarez. DaLuise mentions "taking out," Suarez, but the context referred to "hurting his hands (tools of his trade) not to kill Suarez," the lawsuit reads, according to the LA Times.
One of the texts ends with "LOL," indicating the messages were a joke. Her defense attorneys said she was only blowing off steam to a friend. A jury acquitted DaLuise on charges of solicitation of murder and solicitation of assault in less than an hour.
DaLuise also claims the person who handed over the texts to police, her former friend Edward Feinstein, stalked her at least since 2013. He tried telling investigators that DaLuise was trying to get him to dupe police into thinking it was actually Suarez who was going after DaLuise, the suit claims according to the newspaper.
But if the police conducted a proper investigation, they would have learned that Feinstein was stalking the defendant, including sending lewd emails and posting Craigslist ads about her wanting a rape fantasy, the lawsuit claims.
A few men allegedly showed up at DaLuise's home as a result.
Feinstein was arrested last year on suspicion of stalking but was not charged.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages for financial and emotional suffering - including strip and body cavity searches DaLuise endured in jail. She also lost two businesses, the LA Times reported.
Sheriff's Captain Shawn Mathers, named in the suit along with three others, declined to comment as he had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.
