Beverly Johnson — the first black model to grace the cover of Vogue, in 1974 — is being haunted by an ex-boyfriend who continues to file lawsuits against her and her friends years after she split up with him.
Mark Anthony Burk filed a suit in December claiming he had an oral agreement with the supermodel that she would pay him half of what she earned while they were together. Court papers filed in Riverside County, Calif., claimed Johnson came in January 2008 with a gun-toting Chuck Zito to evict him from her house.
Burk has also filed suits against Johnson’s friends, Beverly Hills socialite Nikki Haskell and movie producer Robert Evans.
Haskell told Page Six that Burk “has been ruled a ‘vexatious litigator,’ but he keeps suing her. He’s sued everybody. She had a restraining order against him, and he broke into her home. He lives in a homeless shelter and does time on the weekends. He’s torturing her.”
Johnson declined to be interviewed for legal reasons, but her publicist, Ann-Marie Nieves, told us: “It is our understanding that Mr. Burk has been convicted of making terrorist threats against Ms. Johnson and is presently serving that sentence. We also understand that since his conviction, he has been found in contempt on three different counts of willfully violating probation. Ms. Johnson is in fear for her safety, but she’s actively working with law enforcement to resolve this situation.”
Zito, the former Hells Angel who used to bodyguard Pamela Anderson, said Burk was lying about Chuck threatening him with a gun. “I don’t need any gun,” Zito said. “I told him, ‘I’m here to make sure you don’t touch her.’ He started crying. Then he jumped in a golf cart and took off.”