Tort Law
Miami Heat Star Sues Estranged Wife, Lawyers Over STD Allegations
Posted Feb 19, 2009, 07:32 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade has filed a libel suit against his estranged wife and her lawyers for allegations in a divorce filing that he had an affair and contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
The suit names as defendants the estranged wife, Siohvaughn Wade, and her lawyers, Michael Berger and Dorene Marcus, as well as their law firms, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The allegations were later withdrawn; Berger told the newspaper the reason was to “calm matters.”
The libel suit “brings Dwyane Wade’s social life into question,” Berger told the Sun-Times. “If I were Mr. Wade I would not want that. It will be interesting to know what Mr. Wade’s social life has really been all about.”
The suit was filed in Chicago and seeks at least $50,000 in damages from each defendant, the Associated Press reports. The complaint claims the allegations made in the divorce filing were disseminated to the media, placing Wade in a false light, the AP story says.