Shaquille O’Neal was questioned by Los Angeles detectives in a 2008 kidnapping and robbery case tied to an alleged sex tape, but he was never charged or named as a suspect, and prosecutors said they had no evidence the tape ever existed.
The details came out in June 2011, just weeks after O’Neal retired from the NBA, when a preliminary hearing began for seven alleged members of the Main Street Mafia Crips. Prosecutors accused the group’s alleged leader, Ladell Rowles, of directing the others to kidnap, beat and rob music promoter Robert Ross on February 11, 2008.
According to the police report, the men confronted Ross outside a Pink Dot convenience store on the Sunset Strip, got into his Rolls Royce Phantom at gunpoint and made him drive to Rowles’ home in South Los Angeles. Ross said he was pistol whipped there and ordered to hand over a videotape, then robbed of his Rolex, a diamond chain, earrings and about $15,000 in cash before being let go. The seven defendants faced charges including kidnapping to commit another crime, second degree robbery, assault with a firearm and conspiracy.
Ross testified that he had once been friends with O’Neal and tried to bring artists to a record label run by O’Neal and his business partner, Mark Stevens. He said he was cut out of a deal involving Ray J, and that during the dispute he claimed to have home security footage of O’Neal with a woman other than his then wife, Shaunie. Ross told investigators he believed O’Neal was behind the attack.
His story did not hold up. Ross later told police he had been bluffing about the tape, and testified that any footage had been recorded over. Prosecutors told the Los Angeles Times they had no evidence a tape existed and that O’Neal was not involved in the case. O’Neal and Stevens both denied any involvement to investigators, and neither was charged or named in the criminal complaint.
