Woman files suit in Baltimore court against magazine co. that

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Dec 13, 2005 by Daniel Ostrovsky

A Westminster automotive parts saleswoman who exposed herself at a gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts in Carroll County last year has filed a $1 million lawsuit against California-based Paisano Publications after a topless photograph of her appeared in the March issue of Easyriders magazine.Tonya Barnhart alleges that she was having fun with her friends in August 2004 and never expected to end up in a publication, which according to the Magazine Publishers of America Web site had an average single-copy circulation of more than 250,000 for the first six months of last year.A lot of these type of events, they have the beads, the bead necklaces and that's kind of what started it all, and the girls were having fun with it, if you will, Barnhart said during an interview yesterday.

And I just decided to participate, which isn't like me. I don't normally do something like that and the one time I do do it, this is what happens to me.Attorney David Ellin, who filed the lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court, said Easyriders acted in an outrageous manner by printing a compromising photograph of his client without her permission - indeed, against her express demand to the contrary.This is the number-one biker magazine that people will subscribe to and/or pick up and being that Ms. Barnhart is in that community and her family is, virtually everyone that she knew commented about this, he explained. The humiliation that she had to deal with, it still bothers her - she thinks about it on pretty much a daily basis.A spokesman for Paisano Publications did not return a call for comment yesterday.The party attended by Barnhart, Ellin said, was held at a farm owned by friends of her parents. More than 100 people bought tickets to the event, she said.Barnhart had been drinking and was in a crowd of people - friends amongst friends and everything, she said - when her picture was taken.It's one of those types of parties that you have a good time with it and sometimes things lead to another, but unfortunately someone had a camera, she said.The man with the camera, Ellin noted, was a freelancer for Easyriders, a monthly which on its Web site bills itself as a motorcycle magazine for men.I could tell that the camera was there, said Barnhart. I didn't know him. I didn't know what he was doing and I was already in a position that I couldn't necessarily say 'stop', you know, 'that guy has a camera.'However, when her friends told her more about the photographer immediately following the incident, Barnhart alleges she went up to him and I said 'do not publish my picture.'Yet, in March, Barnhart said, she learned that her photo was in print.My parents are being called about it and everything, she said. It definitely went around.In addition, Ellin said, his client became concerned about Easyriders reprinting her photograph.There was the possibility that they were going to use that as one of the final photos in the end-of-the-year issue, he said.While Ellin said $1 million is fair compensation for his client's pain, Barnhart said she did learn a valuable lesson.I am not happy with my behavior at all and it will never happen again, she said. I will attend again, but I will never do that again.