This photographer wasn’t going to take being thrown in jail without a fight.
Freelance photographer Wendell Wall, 28, is suing Barbra Streisand, her husband James Brolin and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for allegedly conspiring to incarcerate him.
Streisand and Brolin deny the allegations. Wall was arrested Jan. 8 after the singer and her beau complained to officers that they were being followed and photographed by Wall while they were out looking at a car to purchase, Reuters reports.
Wall, who lives down the street from the famous couple in Malibu, Calif., admits to taking their picture while they were shopping for a car but denies stalking them, as Streisand has said. Wall also says in his suit filed Tuesday that Streisand conspired to keep Wall in jail by having authorities raise his bail from $150,000 to a staggering $1 million. Wall alleges that his arrest was “committed with evil motive and intent and in callous, reckless and wanton disregard” of his civil rights.
Wall also alleges that while he was in jail, an officer entered his cell and said: “This is what you get when your father sues the police.” Wall’s father, interior decorator Gene Wall, later told reporters that his son’s arrest was politically motivated because he and Streisand had a falling out over a decorating project.
Streisand denies that the elder Wall ever worked for her.
The younger Wall spent three days in jail for following Streisand and Brolin but was released for “lack of evidence of a credible threat.” The suit seeks a $25,000 civil penalty against each defendant plus unspecified punitive and general damages.
