SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio strip club has been slapped with a lawsuit from several professional models, none of whom live in Texas.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday against Capisce Gentlemen's Club, located along Perrin Beitel on the northeast side, by Jaclyn Swedberg, Jamillette Gaxiola, Lina Posada, Mariana Davalos, Irina Voronina and Eva Pepaj. The women, based out of California, Nevada and Colombia, claim the strip club is using images of them – including personal selfies – to promote the business without their permission.
Those ads included military and Super Bowl-themed promotions in which some of the models were "deliberately positioned to imply" they worked at Capisce.
"In the case of each and every depiction featuring plaintiff's images, such appearances were false," the lawsuit alleges.
They're suing for defamation and misleading use of their images, and seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
"The plaintiffs are well-known professional models who earn their livelihood modeling and selling their identity, image and likeness... to companies, magazines, and individuals for the purpose of advertising, endorsing, or promoting products and services," the suit says, describing some of the plaintiffs as actresses and fashion designers.
These images were allegedly used over an extended period of time on multiple occasions, without their knowledge and without payment.
"The club misappropriated their images and likenesses and repeatedly published them in a negligent manner," the lawsuit says.