The NBA as part of its formal case against banned Clippers Owner Donald Sterling said that he "made several attempts to deflect responsibility for his rant against African Americans -- even asking his companion V. Stiviano to lie about the authenticity of the recording of the incident," according to Rainey & Fenno of the L.A. TIMES. The NBA alleges that Donald Sterling and Rochelle Sterling, his "wife of 58 years 'are not in any sense estranged,' as she has said." The NBA's case also contends that Clippers President Andy Roeser "discussed the recording with Donald Sterling and then instructed an employee to destroy the copy, more than two weeks before it became public." The NBA's case said that on April 26, the "day after the recording became public, Sterling and his wife and Roeser huddled in a San Francisco hotel room," where they "helped work out a statement from the Clippers." Rochelle Sterling's lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell, said she "had no involvement whatsoever in any decision on the content or release of the April 26 statement." The NBA in its investigation said that Donald Sterling "asked Stiviano to disavow her previous statements about the authenticity of the recording and to say that she had altered the audio." Although the NBA's case "focuses primarily" on Donald Sterling, this week's filing "suggested that the league was intent on terminating his wife's ownership interest." Investigators in the documents said, "Significant evidence exists in the public record and otherwise that Mr. and Mrs. Sterling are not in any sense estranged" (L.A. TIMES, 5/21).
