We hear about mothers and children suing deadbeat dads all the time for back payment of child support, shirking paternal responsibilities and being an all around jerk. But NewsFeed has never heard of a father suing his son in a paternity case.
But that’s just what is happening between a Washington lawyer, Leicester Stovell, and the NBA superstar who he claims is his son: the transplanted forward for the Miami Heat, LeBron James.
Stovell, says in the suit that he met James’s mother, Gloria, in 1984 when she visited Washington at age 14 or 15. He says they conceived a child and her mother informed him of the pregnancy. Fast forward 26 years and Stovell says that the Jameses are involved in a coverup to deny paternity and is seeking an unspecified amount for fraud and defamation.
Now in the age of Maury Povich, it would seem easy enough to just get a DNA test. That’s what most would-be dads singing “Billie Jean” do anyway. But Stovell says the DNA test he took, which showed he was NOT THE FATHER was falsified, opening the litigation gate.
James’s lawyers balk at the assertion and told CNN Stovell is an opportunist:
“Stovell’s claims for millions of dollars from his putative son and Gloria James are based upon rank speculation,” said the court filing, “that a man who claims that as a 29-year-old lawyer he got a 15-year-old girl pregnant during a one-night stand and who never contributed a penny in child support would earn millions in commercial endorsements by crawling out of the woodwork after the child he never gave a thought to became an NBA star.”