World News – Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling took the stand again Wednesday and continued to taunt his wife’s attorney as he proclaimed that he would “never, ever, ever sell this team” and would sue the NBA until the day he dies.
The trial will decide whether his wife Shelly was within her rights when she negotiated a sale of the NBA team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
“She has no rights whatsoever,” Sterling testified Wednesday. “She may be a trustee, but she has no stock, no authority to make a sale.”
He went on to proclaim his commitment to keeping the team under his ownership.
“I’m not a racist. I love all people, but I was the poster boy!” Sterling said in court Wednesday. “Make no mistake today. I will never, ever, ever sell this team. And until I die, I will be suing the NBA.”
“This is the worst corporation in America, and everyone will find out how terrible they are,” Sterling said.
Attorneys agreed last week to focus the case on whether Sterling was induced into mental examinations by doctors arranged Shelly without being told that they could be used to remove him as a trustee of the Sterling Family Trust, which controls the Clippers and provides the framework under which the team can be sold.
Sterling’s testimony often crossed into insults toward his wife’s attorney and the doctors that ruled him mentally incapacitated, claiming one of the doctors was drunk and implored Sterling’s attorney to “stand up and be a man.”
He continued his combative attitude toward his wife’s legal team on Wednesday and went on further about his feelings toward his wife.
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling took the stand again Wednesday and continued to taunt his wife’s attorney as he proclaimed that he would “never, ever, ever sell this team” and would sue the NBA until the day he dies.
The trial will decide whether his wife Shelly was within her rights when she negotiated a sale of the NBA team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
“She has no rights whatsoever,” Sterling testified Wednesday. “She may be a trustee, but she has no stock, no authority to make a sale.”
He went on to proclaim his commitment to keeping the team under his ownership.
“I’m not a racist. I love all people, but I was the poster boy!” Sterling said in court Wednesday. “Make no mistake today. I will never, ever, ever sell this team. And until I die, I will be suing the NBA.”
“This is the worst corporation in America, and everyone will find out how terrible they are,” Sterling said.
Attorneys agreed last week to focus the case on whether Sterling was induced into mental examinations by doctors arranged Shelly without being told that they could be used to remove him as a trustee of the Sterling Family Trust, which controls the Clippers and provides the framework under which the team can be sold.
Sterling’s testimony often crossed into insults toward his wife’s attorney and the doctors that ruled him mentally incapacitated, claiming one of the doctors was drunk and implored Sterling’s attorney to “stand up and be a man.”
He continued his combative attitude toward his wife’s legal team on Wednesday and went on further about his feelings toward his wife.
“She deceived me. I trusted her. I believed her. I never thought a woman wouldn’t stand by her husband,” Sterling testified.
When Shelly’s took the stand Wednesday, she was ask whether she is separated from her husband, to which she replied, “Uh, sort of.”
Under cross-examination earlier in the trial, a neurologist and a psychiatrist both testified that they had found Sterling mentally incapacitated, but also admitted they did not tell him their exams could be used to remove him as an administrator of the trust. Sterling’s attorneys continued with cross-examination of the neurologist Wednesday.
During her testimony, Shelly denied claims by Donald that the neurologist who examined him was drunk.
Shelly approached Donald after leaving the stand.
“Stay away from me, you pig,” he said to Shelly. “How could you lie?”
Shelly’s attorney then asked the judge to remove him from the courtroom. The judge asked Sterling not to speak and called his remarks disturbing.
“Emotions were really high in the courtroom today,” Sterling’s attorney Bobby Samini said. “Sixty years married, I know that Donald felt very upset watching her testimony. I think he felt betrayed by it.”
“Today he was rude to his own lawyer, he was rude to the court, and then to turn to his wife that he has pretended he loves…she walks off the stand and he says, ‘You pig,'” Shelly’s attorney Bert Fields said,
“That’s who he is. Sometimes he’s combative, sometimes he’s witty, sometimes he’s charming, sometimes he’s funny,” Samini said. “It’s not a vaudeville act. That’s who he is.”
Ballmer’s attorney said the testimony by Sterling shows why the team needs to be sold.
“It was a shameful display by a seriously demented tyrant, and he proved today he absolutely has to go,” Adam Streisand said.
Shelly’s attorneys assert she organized the medical examinations under terms of the trust that indicate incapacitation can be determined by two licensed doctors without ties to the family who are specialists in their field. A trustee must cooperate with the exams.
“The judge has ruled he’s only going to look into whether there was proper certification so I don’t want to get into whether he’s competent but you guys can draw your own conclusion,” Shelly Sterling’s attorney Bert Fields said. “Is this a guy you’d employ to sell hamburgers?”
Attorneys for Donald Sterling counter that he was “blindsided” by the exams and agreed to them under false pretenses.
The $2 billion deal to sell the Clippers was negotiated with Ballmer after after the NBA moved to oust Donald Sterling because of racist remarks made during a recorded phone conversation.
In order for the deal to proceed, a judge must find that Shelly Sterling acted in accordance with the trust and that the deal is part of a “winding down” or the trust’s affairs, as her attorneys claim.
NBA owners are scheduled to meet July 15 to vote to approve the deal. Ballmer’s offer is set to expire on the same day.
If the sale isn’t completed by Sept. 15, the league said it could seize the team and put it up for auction.
Christina Cocca contributed to this report.
By Kim Baldanado and Kevin Truong,www.nbclosangeles.com
