If there's any indication that embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling did not commit a one-time faux over his views on minorities, its the way how he and his legal wife have dealt with a 2003 housing lawsuit filed by a blind, partially paralyzed tenant against them. The daily Beast said that if the National Basketball Association did not permit its league members to discriminatory acts, Sterling should have been punished a long time ago in relation to the housing case.
Kandynce Jones had filed a complaint against the Sterlings for the former's discriminatory acts against them. According to court papers, Sterling made rude comments about Jones after saying that they should have evicted her to one of his employees. The said employee testified on behalf of the Sterlings, the Daily Beast said.
"Kandynce Jones was under threat of eviction by [Sterling] even though she had never missed a rent payment. Ms. Jones, who is a senior citizen and a person with a disability, suffered a stroke caused by the stress by Defendants' housing practices. On July 21, 2003, Ms. Jones passed away as a result of that stroke," the court papers claimed.
Jones, co-plaintiffs have pursued the case against the Sterlings after the senior citizen's death. The case has been settled since then.
Rochelle Sterling, Donald's wife, was also accused in the court papers for posing as a government health inspector in order to gai access to their tenants' dwellings and record their ethnicity, among other things. The wife reportedly knew about Sterling's racist housing policies and she herself was active in his real estate endeavors.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had banned the Clippers owner from the sports league for life, issuing a $2.5 million fine for his racist comments in a taped conversation with his alleged mistress, Daily Beast said.
