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OFF BEAT: Woman sues TV producers, says she was too drunk to sign consent form

Posted On: Apr. 3, 2012 12:00 AM CST

The producers of a jail-based reality TV show are finding out that not everyone is looking for their 15 minutes of fame.

A Las Vegas woman has filed suit against the producers of “Inside American Jail” after she was featured on an episode of the show in an “extremely intoxicated” state, according to a Las Vegas Sun report.

According to the Sun, Lenette Beall was arrested on April 10, 2010, for suspicion of driving while drunk and taken to a Clark County, Nev., jail. It was there, according to Ms. Beall’s lawsuit, that she was humiliated by members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, including at least one on-camera reference to her as “a naughty girl,” according to the Sun.

In her suit, filed March 30 in the U.S. District Court of Nevada in Las Vegas, Ms. Beall claims she was too drunk to remember signing a waiver permitting the show’s crew to film her, and that her condition at the time legally precluded her entering into any kind of contract or formal agreement.

Since the episode’s April 2010 airing, Ms. Beall claimed she has been “the subject of an avalanche of ridicule, scorn and unwanted recognition for the way she was portrayed on ‘Inside American Jail,’” according to her complaint.

Ms. Beall accuses the Sheriff’s Department of ignoring her constitutional rights, in part because the show’s producers, Los Angeles-based Langley Productions Inc., contributed significant funding to Sheriff Douglas Gillespie’s 2010 re-election campaign.

In addition to the producers, Ms. Beall’s complaint names Mr. Gillespie and at least two unnamed members of the Sheriff’s Department as defendants. Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc., which owns the network that airs “Inside American Jail,” and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also are named in the suit.