"In December 2005, when then-Miami Beach Police Chief Donald DeLucca swore in Shaquille O'Neal as an honorary police officer, the basketball star secured his status as a cop admirer.

Now, if the allegations in a civil lawsuit - dismissed once but back in court again - are to be believed, the retired DeLucca and one active member of his force went on to help O'Neal with an unsavory project: taking revenge on a former employee who threatened to blow the whistle on the former Miami Heat center during his contentious divorce.

Emails and text messages attached as exhibits to an amended complaint in Miami-Dade Circuit Court allege that O'Neal schemed to frame his former computer adviser, Shawn Darling. The Sun Sentinel obtained from court the exhibits to the complaint filed by Darling before a judge sealed them on Thursday.

O'Neal's attorney, Benjamine Reid, said Thursday that he would file within days a response to the amended complaint, or move to have the case dismissed entirely."