Former Miami Heat star Shaquille O'Neal has been hit with an explosive lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade court alleging that the hard court legend planted child pornography in an attempt to frame a former employee, and hacked into various personal accounts of the employee and a former mistress. We've been following Shaq's personal Twitter for a while now, and we were under the impression the guy was pretty much computer illiterate. Guess not.
Former employee Shawn Darling filed the lawsuit August 3 in a Miami-Dade court. Darling had been working as Shaq's personal IT guy since 2007, back when he was still playing for the Heat.
The lawsuit, obtained by RadarOnline, claims that Darling worked with O'Neal, his family, and various associates in an IT capacity since late 2007, and that while working with O'Neal the two mens' children would play together. Darling followed O'Neal when he was traded to the Phoenix Sun in 2008, and again when he was traded to Cleveland.
The first bit of shady business came when O'Neal was hit with stalking allegation by alleged former mistress Alexis Miller. O'Neal, according to the suit, asked Darling to retrieve any and all e-mails and text messages that might have been sent to Miller. Apparently, as a way of destroying evidence O'Neal and an associate, Joe Cabellero, described as a "house boy," threw a computer into a lake.
O'Neal begin sending all of this personal e-mails through Darling's accounts, apparently, so that Darling could properly document them. Through this Darling became aware of Shaq's declining marriage, and his alleged relationship with another mistress, Vanessa Lopez.
Lopez is now ;suing Shaq as well for allegedly hacking into her voicemail account and changing her password. Lopez and her attorney asked Darling for help in their case, and Darling complied.
When Shaq got wind of this and realized how much Darling knew about his personal life he apparently decided to frame Darling on charges of child pornography, a scheme he allegedly cooked up with the help of a Phoenix-area law enforcement officer. The suit claims that Darling has evidence, including pictures, detailing numerous affairs that Shaq carried on while married. Apparently enough to make Tiger Woods blush.
"Ok but in the meantime o boy needs to be put in jail, we have way too many law enforcement connections to let a criminal try to get over on mine o mine, we don't need any distractions as we deal with Harvard guy, shoe line guy, restaurant guy, real estate guy and everything we are planning to do after basketball life," Shaq allegedly wrote to his agent in regards to the Darling situation.
Shaq allegedly tried to break into Darling's voicemail account and frame Darling for possession of child porn.
The lawsuit does not specify a dollar amount, but is seeking a judgment for "treble damages" as well as court and attorney fees.
