Do you recall a man named Shawn Darling filing a lawsuit against Shaquille O’Neal? Darling was Shaq’s former personal IT guy. In the suit, he alleged that Shaq had hacked into his computer, destroying evidence and planting child pornography on Shawn’s computers to frame him.
The suit was thrown out but Darling has filed an amended complaint alleging that O’Neal inflicted “emotional distress and invasion of privacy” against him. In the complaint, Darling has accused Shaq of planting a tracking device on his wife’s car, using the services of police officers and state attorneys to help him threaten and plant false evidence on a business associate, and even trying to cover-up multiple affairs, including one with a Newsweek reporter.
The 85 page document contains more shocking details of Shaq’s alleged thuggery to protect his “extra-marital” secrets.
What kicked off Shaq’s spygate was concern that Vanessa Lopez (a woman claiming to have had an extended affair with O’Neal beginning while he was with the Heat) had plans to reveal details of the alleged to affair to O’Neal’s wife at the time, Shaunie.
“At some point O’Neal had his wife’s car wired and hired ‘Guidepoint,’ a company to place a GPS tracking system on her car to track her movements and her whereabouts. O’Neal had his henchman, Derrick Mallet, check with ‘Guidepoint,’ to find out where his wife had been.” The lawsuit claims that Mallet informed O’Neal via email about his wife’s movements.
“Miami Beach Police Sergeant Jorge Alessandri responded to O’Neal that he got O’Neal’s e-mails and that he will go over the information contained in them with a friend at the Miami-Dade State Attorney office,” the lawsuit says.
There are claims O’Neal improperly used government officials to cover crimes or make information vanish. “O’Neal along with Miami Beach Police Internal Affairs Unit, Sergeant Jorge Alessandri, Joe Wise, Donald Deluca, Jesus Pena, Timothy Devine, Justin Zormello, Robert Lara, Derrick Mallett, Joe Cavalerro, Jerome Crawfor, Mike Parris, and unnamed other persons embarked upon a mission to discredit, destroy, and ruin Darling in order to make sure that the proof that Darling had of O’Neals numerous acts would never see the light of day.”
Darling also alleges that Shaq was having an affair with Newsweek reporter, Allison Samuels.
It’s interesting that the bulk of Shaq’s lawsuits seem to center around his alleged extra-marital affairs in some form or fashion. Those are some pretty lofty allegations being presented and Darling doesn’t seem willing to let it go. Just we’ll just have to see if it makes it to trial.
