Not since "Kazaam" has Shaquille O'Neal been involved in something as dastardly as the allegations that he tried to plant child pornography on an employee's computer.
But that, along with claims he hacked computers and destroyed evidence, are exactly what the former Miami Heat center faces in a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade last month, according to a report Wednesday on Radaronline.com.
The lawsuit was filed by Shawn Darling, a former employee, who also claims intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and civil R.I.C.O. at the hands of Diesel.
But Shaq's attorney has his back. The lovable big man denies the claims and his attorney released a statement basically accusing Darling of trying to extort $12 million from O'Neal.
Shaq claims Darling copied thousands of e-mails from his account without his permission in an effort to use them as blackmail.
Darling served as O'Neal's personal IT guy from 2007-2009, during his time with the Phoenix Suns, and says he witnessed the big guy commit some big crimes, on him and others. Darling claims Shaq had several affairs while still married and was trying to keep them quiet any way he could.
He claims Shaq asked him to help retrieve e-mails and text messages he had sent to hip-hop singer Alexis Miller, who was allegedly having an affair with O'Neal in 2008, after the singer accused him of harassment. Darling claims that after the info was obtained, he did a "Defense Department type wipe of O'Neal's computer" before O'Neal and another man threw the computer in the lake behind Shaq's house.
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In another incident, in 2009, Darling claims Shaq hacked into the voicemail of Vanessa Lopez, another supposed mistress, to delete messages and change her password. Lopez found out about the hacking from Darling, the lawsuit says, but told Shaq, who set about trying to ruin Darling.
He says he began to receive threatening messages from Shaq and that the NBA player tried to hack into his voicemail.
Shaq's rebuttal is Darling is a convicted criminal running another scam to get money. According to Shaq's attorney, Darling has been arrested more than 15 times and served 32 months in federal prison for bank fraud and misuse of Social Security numbers.
“Darling, an ex-convict with a long criminal record that he failed to disclose and hid from Mr. O’Neal, has demanded $12 million in exchange for not releasing Mr. O’Neal’s personal and confidential emails and communications. When Mr. O’Neal refused to be extorted, Darling filed a lawsuit claiming ‘invasion of privacy and emotional distress,’” Shaq's people said in a statement to Radaronline.com.
Darling's most shocking allegation is that O'Neal enlisted the help of an Arizona detective to try to frame Darling for possession of kiddie porn so Shaq could get at the computer that contained evidence of his affair.
Darling claims he has e-mails, text messages and photos that back his story up, including an e-mail exchange between O'Neal and his agent about Darling.
"Got it he will be stopped n pay for this," the agent allegedly wrote.
"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 wrote back.
Shaq, 38, settled with Miller, but faces a harassment lawsuit from Lopez.
