Montville - A woman has filed a lawsuit against the town and an Uncasville tanning salon seeking damages for what she describes as an invasion of privacy, after a salon employee and later emergency services personnel entered the tanning booth room while the complainant was naked.

A court summons filed July 31 by Karen Haynes of Willimantic, states that, after an employee of an Exotic Tans franchise at 2020 Norwich-New London Turnpike entered the room where Haynes had been tanning on Aug. 22, 2012, "male employees of Montville Police Department, without provocation or cause, forced plaintiff to undergo a sobriety test."

Haynes, who then lived in Norwich, is seeking more than $15,000 in damages from the town and S&P Tans LLC, which owns the tanning salon. The salon has since changed its name to My Tan because it is no longer a franchise, though S&P still owns it, according to Preston resident Bill Sezenias, who owns S&P.

Sezenias said that the employee was following the store's policy when she entered the room. He said that as a safety precaution, store policy requires staff to bang on the door of tanning quarters if customers do not exit up to 20 minutes after the tanning session ends.

He said that after 20 minutes, the employee banged on the door. The employee later entered the room to check on Haynes, he said. The employee then called Sezenias and he advised her to call police, he said. She called and EMTs arrived on scene, he said.

Contact information for Haynes could not be found Thursday. Her attorney Lorenzo J. Cicchiello, of the firm Cichiello and Cicchiello in Norwich, was not at his office Thursday according to an administrative assistant at the firm.

Mayor Ronald McDaniel said that the lawsuit has been forwarded to Town Attorney Matt Auger and Trident Insurance, which provided coverage for the town at the time of the incident. He declined to comment further.

t.townsend@theday.com