Civil Liberties

Shaquille O'Neal, Lawman

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Washed-up basketball star Shaquille O'Neal has made no secret about his wish to become a cop after he retires. And he's been made an honorary deputy at several police departments around the country. Radar Online now reports that he may already be well-acquainted with the custom of professional courtesy.

NBA star Shaquille O'Neal is at the center of an explosive new lawsuit accusing him of computer hacking, destroying evidence and indicating that he attempted to frame an employee by planting child pornography on his computer, RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively…

Here are some of the explosive allegations:

  • Shaq hacked into the voicemails and phone systems of Darling and Vanessa Lopez, a mistress who is currently suing O'Neal. He deleted Lopez's messages and changed her password.
  • O'Neal used his law enforcement contacts, both active and retired, to obtain restricted information about one of his mistresses, Alexis Miller, while he was involved in a legal battle with her.
  • Shaq threw a personal computer holding much of this evidence in the lake behind his home.
  • Shaq conspired with active law enforcement as well as ex-members of law enforcement to frame Darling for a criminal offense and destroy any evidence that Darling might have against O'Neal.

Darling says there is proof in the form of emails, text messages and photos that Shaq had multiple affairs while married and tried to keep that information from going public.

This is one half of a lawsuit, so digest the allegations with that in mind.

Back in 2007, I wrote a short item for Reason about Shaq's participation in a botched SWAT raid in, of all places, Bedford County, Virginia. Of all the bizarre SWAT stories I've reported over the years, that one is among the most surreal. Imagine you're A.J. Nuckols or his wife. You've just been thrown to the ground at gunpoint by a SWAT team on a mistaken search for child porn. Terrified, you then look up to see that among the officers rummaging about your rural Virginia home . . . is Shaquille O'Neal.

But Shaq had the post-raid script down pat:

"It ain't no story," he said. "We did everything right, went to the judge, got a warrant. You know, they make it seem like we beat him up, and that never happened. We went in, talked to him, took some stuff, returned it—bada bam, bada bing."