Lawyer Says LeBron James Is His Son

WASHINGTON - A lawyer says he believes he is the father of basketball star LeBron James, and he has filed suit in federal court alleging a scheme to cover up paternity.

In a complaint filed June 23, Leicester Bryce Stovell says he has been trying to determine paternity since 2007, at one point taking a DNA test in Cleveland. He alleges that the test results were falsified and that James; his mother, Gloria James; and his attorney have prevented further attempts to settle the issue. The complaint was first reported Wednesday on the website TMZ.

The complaint (PDF) alleges that Gloria James threatened Stovell and committed fraud and misrepresentation in an effort to conceal the identity of James’ father. It also alleges that she and LeBron James have defamed Stovell’s character, quoting LeBron James as saying publicly, “I want to be a better father than mine was.”

“I recently have concluded that a comprehensive, sophisticated and well-funded effort might well have been underway for quite some time, perhaps beginning in its present form as early as when Defendant LeBron James was in high school, to frustrate identification of his real father, and that there is a likelihood that the father in question is me,” the complaint reads.

Gloria James, who had LeBron when she was 16, told ESPN The Magazine in 2002 that her son’s father is a man named Anthony McClelland. According to the complaint, James’ attorney, Frederick Nance, told Stovell that a DNA test h ...