The former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers Donald Sterling filed a lawsuit against TMZ and his former "companion" V. Stiviano over the leaked recordings in which Sterling made racially charged comments that led to him being stripped of his ownership of the Clippers, reported the Washington Post.
The lawsuit was filed last week and alleged that Stiviano recorded a phone conversation with Sterling in September 2013 and that she or an associate provided the "illicitly" recorded conversation to TMZ in violation of Sterling's right to privacy, according to the Los Angeles Times. Sterling said in the suit that he did not know Stiviano regularly recorded their conversations.
The former Clippers owner claimed in the lawsuit that that the release of the recording damaged him on a "scale of unparalleled and unprecedented magnitude." The lawsuit alleged that Stiviano or TMZ doctored the tapes to "reflect conversations ... that either never occurred, were grossly distorted and/or stated out of context."
The release of the tapes sparked an intense public backlash against Sterling that resulted in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fining Sterling $2.5-million. He was also banned from the NBA for life and was forced to sell the team.
Stiviano maintained that she didn't leak the tapes herself, and that Sterling knew she'd recorded their conversations, according to Gawker. She also said Sterling consented to recordings she made on phones while they carried on a sexless relationship.
