“Feces Mansion” Lawsuit Against Michael Lucas Moved To Federal Court, Pre-Trial Set For 2/29
Good news for anyone hoping to see Michael Lucas on trial in federal court for his alleged destruction of an Airbnb rental last year. The lawsuit—which claims that Michael Lucas fraudulently rented a California mansion for commercial purposes, and then left the property covered in urine, semen, and fecal matter—has been moved out of Ventura County Superior Court and into U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, with federal judge Michael W. Fitzgerald presiding.
The case appears to have been removed from Ventura due to two reasons: One, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Kristina Knapic, is a California resident and Lucas is a New York resident; and two, the amount of damages sought exceeds the minimum jurisdictional amount.
Here is the notice of removal:
In another filing two weeks ago, Michael Lucas formally denied the allegations in the lawsuit, demanded that the plaintiff compensate him for attorneys’ fees, and made a request for a jury trial:
Assuming neither side backs down, a trial should commence within the next six months. A scheduling conference before Judge Fitzgerald is set for 2/29/16 at the U.S. District courthouse in downtown Los Angeles—the same location where Jarec Wentworth stood trial last summer.
Finally, now that the case has been moved out of Ventura County and into federal court, additional documents that weren’t previously online have been made available. Here is one of them, the initial threat letter from Knapic to Lucas before the lawsuit was filed, which asked for a total of $150,000 in damages:
