Actress Ashley Judd filed a police report in Tennessee accusing her older half-sister Wynonna Judd of attempting to track her car with a GPS device, but just who her big sister may have been trying to keep tabs on remains unclear.
According to a document filed with Tennessee’s Franklin Police Department, in early November, Ashley suspected her country singing sibling of placing a GPS tracking device on her silver Mini Cooper in order to obtain information related to an “ongoing custody dispute” within the family.
An unnamed female driver of Ashley’s automobile, whose name was redacted by police, reportedly became suspicious and took the car to a local mechanic who located the device on the Mini, which then prompted the “Kiss the Girls” star to turn to authorities.
Police reportedly determined the cellular tracking gadget was registered to a local Nashville private investigator, Janice Diane Swafford-Holt. A source tells FOX411 that this isn’t the first time Wynonna has worked with Swafford-Holt, saying they teamed up during the singer’s marriage to boat salesman Arch Kelley, which ended in 1998.
Swafford-Holt declined FOX411’s request for comment.
The police report also stated that Ashley alleges that Wynonna gave the tracking device to her ex-husband Kelley, and that he was the one who placed it on the Mini Cooper. However, according to the report, police spoke with Kelley, and he denied any involvement in the alleged incident.
According to Tennessee-based attorney Adam Dread, putting a GPS device on someone else’s car is a serious crime that can come with serious consequences.
“This issue falls under Tennessee Code Annotated 39-13-606, covering Invasion of Privacy by Electronic Monitoring of a Motor Vehicle. It is considered a criminal act in Tennessee for a person to install or conceal an electronic monitoring device on a vehicle belonging to another without the owner’s permission,” he explained. “The penalty for those caught violating this can include both jail time and a fine. In addition to criminal charges, the person being ‘spied on’ can certainly sue the person (including private investigators) illegally tracking them for ‘invasion of privacy.’”
Dread added that there are some exceptions to this law, the strongest of which is a parent putting a GPS on a car owned by the parent in order to keep tabs on a child. Reports indicated that Wynonna and Arch’s teen daughter may have been the anonymous driver of Ashley’s vehicle. However, the owner of the car must be the parent of the minor in order for it not to be considered a criminal offense. In this case, the car’s owner is allegedly Ashley Judd.
For now it appears as though no charges will be filed as Franklin police have deemed the case “inactive” pending further leads. “Nothing comes as much of a surprise with this family,” an inside source told us. “You have to expect anything from them.”
Reps for both the Judd sisters as well as the Franklin Police Department did not respond to a request for further comment.
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