When she was 14 years old, Lindsey Boyd made a split-second decision while on a supervised spring break trip with her 8th grade friends from Cobb County.
A group of men approached the girls and offered Boyd a beaded necklace if she flashed them, Boyd, now 26, said in an exclusive interview with Channel 2 Action News. She did, and she's been paying for it ever since, she said.
“They didn’t have big equipment with them or ‘Girls Gone Wild’ T-shirts on them,” Boyd said.
It didn’t matter. The men sold the videotape to the provocative show, which then put her picture on the cover of one of its videotapes. Neither Boyd nor her parents had consented to the use of the picture, she says.
Boyd said she was forced to attend three different high schools after being harassed and bullied over the picture.
In 2004, Boyd filed a federal lawsuit against “Girls Gone Wild” and its producer, Joseph Francis. But her attorney says the case has been stalled because of other litigation against Francis and his productions.
Now the Georgia Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on the case.
On Aug. 27, U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes sent a certified question to the Georgia Supreme Court, asking the justices to answer whether, among many questions, a 14-year-old girl can consent to being videotaped, and then distributed for commercial purposes.
“Unfortunately, the very scant Georgia law on this subject provides no clear answer as to whether the plaintiff has a viable claim,” Carnes wrote.
Boyd, who now lives in Cartersville with her husband, says she believes the state laws should be changed to keep other children from the same ordeal she’s gone through.
“I think there should be laws to protect kids,” Boyd said. “I mean, yeah, I made a stupid decision — but I was 14.”
The attorney for “Girls Gone Wild” did not reply to a call from Channel 2 regarding the case.
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