Wife of Ex-Clippers Owner Donald Sterling, Girlfriend Face Off Over Fortune

Shelly Sterling is going after the $2.5 million in real estate and cars her husband lavished on V. Stiviano

The woman who was dating Donald Sterling when she recorded him making racially insensitive remarks that cost him ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers faces a fight with his estranged wife that could cost her the fortune he gave her.

Shelly Sterling is going after the $2.5 million in real estate and cars her husband lavished on V. Stiviano in a trial that began Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. In his opening statement in trial, lawyer Pierce O'Donnell said the 32-year-old defendant took advantage of Donald Sterling's age to get what she wanted.

"She used a tangled web of deception and lies to keep Shelly Sterling  in the dark," O'Donnell said. "Like Watergate, we must follow the money."

Shelly Sterling accused Stiviano of befriending and seducing older, wealthy men into loaning her money, giving her gifts or cheating them out of their wealth. She claims the gifts were community property her husband of 58 years had no right to give away.

Stiviano's lawyer, Mac Nehoray, said the law does not support Shelly Sterling's arguments, and argued that O'Donnell's portrayal of the couple as  being part of a "loving family" is contradicted by Shelly Sterling's  statements to Barbara Walters that she and her husband once were separated. Nehoray also said Shelly Sterling is a defendant in various lawsuits he  has filed, including one against the NBA.

The trial comes nearly a year after Stiviano's recording of Donald Sterling telling her not to publicly associate with blacks led to a bizarre series of events culminating with his lifetime ban from basketball and the record $2 billion sale of the team that was once the butt of jokes.

Sterling, a lawyer known for relishing a skirmish, vowed to fight the NBA to his death, filing lawsuits against the league and his wife in state and federal courts. He is also suing two doctors who said he had symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, a diagnosis that allowed his wife to seize the family trust and sell the team.

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The recording created a minor celebrity out of Stiviano, who was seen in photos cozying up to the 80-year-old billionaire courtside at Clippers games. She was shadowed by paparazzi as she emerged from her home wearing a large visor and other disguises but remained a mystery.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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