Mink Co-Ed Pelts Lohan With Lawsuit

May 20, 2008— -- A jury may get to decide whether "Mean Girls" star Lindsay Lohan nabbed a college co-ed's $12,000 fur coat and kept it for nearly three weeks, now that the student has sued Lohan.

Maria "Masha" Markova filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. The suit asks for "punitive and exemplary damages" but does not specify the amount.

"Let it be up to a jury to decide," Markova's attorney, Merrill Cohen, told ABCNEWS.com, "if it goes that far."

Cohen previously told ABCNEWS.com, "If we filed suit, we would seek punitive damages in the six-figure range. It has to be something that's going to be substantial, that makes her accountable for what she did."

Lohan's rep denied any charges of fur-nabbing. "Lindsay did not steal a coat," Leslie Sloane Zelnick e-mailed ABCNEWS.com when previously asked about Markova's allegations.

The lawsuit alleges that Lohan took the blond, sheared mink on Jan. 26: "Defendant took wrongful possession of Plaintiff's Blond Mink Coat with malice, reckless disregard of Plaintiff's rights, and the intention to convert said property to her own possession and benefit without claim of authority, privilege or right."

Lohan, along with Markova, 22, a former model and Russian émigré, was attending a private birthday party at the New York City nightclub 1 Oak. At one point the two women even sat next to each other, though they never exchanged words, according to Cohen, Markova's attorney.

Earlier, Markova put her Italian-designed fur, a gift from her grandmother, on top of other jackets in a common storage bin next to the couches, Cohen said. Apparently, few people check their coats at the velvet-roped nightclub, especially at a private event.

When she prepared to leave after about an hour, her mink was gone. Two weeks later, Markova flipped through the Feb. 11 edition of OK! magazine and saw Lohan photographed the very same night in an identical blond fur.

Cohen contacted Lohan's Hollywood attorney, demanding the coat back. It arrived two days later, on Feb. 14. In the lawsuit, Markova alleges that Lohan "caused harm to said property."

She told the New York Post the coat reeked of cigarettes and alcohol and the lining was slightly torn.

"We wanted this whole thing to be private," attorney Cohen said. "If she [Lohan] had just apologized and given the coat right back, this would have been done. But there was no apology, no acceptance of responsibility."