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Ex-Sterling employee claims sexual, racial harassment

Posted at 11:45 AM, Jun 03, 2014
and last updated 2014-06-03 11:45:57-04

(CNN) — A woman who says she twice worked for L.A. Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling sued him this week, alleging that he sexually harassed her and made her uncomfortable with racist remarks — and that he once fired her after she objected.

Maiko Maya King’s lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Count Superior Court, alleges she and Sterling were in a romantic relationship from 2005 to 2011, and that she “worked for him and his foundation” before her irritation at what she claims were his racially offensive remarks split them apart.

King alleges Sterling made racist comments about her former husband, who was black, and about her children with that man.

“Why would you bring black people into the world?” Sterling allegedly said, according to the lawsuit. The suit also alleges Sterling said: “I want to take you out of the black world and put you into the white world.”

The suit also claims that after she re-establishing contact with him in late 2013, he hired her as his “personal assistant/caretaker” with an agreement to pay her $10,000 a month.

However, the suit says, he “dangled money only if she would have sex with him,” and she “refused to perform many of the acts.”

Sterling fired her after she protested against the alleged sexual harassment and racist remarks he allegedly made, the suit says.

Attempts by CNN to reach Sterling’s lawyer for comment about the lawsuit weren’t immediately successful.

CNN’s Jason Hanna contributed to this report.