*Shaquille O’Neal – the Miami Heat center who works as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in the offseason – was in Virginia on his second job last month when a child pornography raid suddenly went awry.
*Shaquille O’Neal – the Miami Heat center who works as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in the offseason – was in Virginia on his second job last month when a child pornography raid suddenly went awry.
Shaq says he did not take part in serving a search warrant at the wrong house on Sept. 23. However, Bedford County Sheriff's Lt. Michael Harmony confirmed to The Associated Press that O'Neal was there.
O'Neal, in Orlando to play a preseason game Tuesday, was asked about the raid and several times somewhat playfully responded, "It wasn't me."
"Of course, being sheriff is a seasoned political position, so we're not going to be out there knocking down the wrong doors," he said. "We just have to do the right thing."
According to the AP, the warrant was served by mistake at the Gretna, Va. home of A.J. Nuckols, who has since filed a formal complaint against the officers for their aggressive tactics.
In a letter published in the Chatham Star-Tribune, Nuckols described being "held at gunpoint, taunted and led into the house," and said the home was ransacked by a "paramilitary search-and-seizure team" that took computers, cameras, DVDs and VHS tapes.
In a phone interview with AP, Nuckols said he heard O'Neal was at his home, but didn't specifically see the 7-foot-1, 325-pound All-Star in all the commotion.
The Bedford Sheriff's Office enlisted O'Neal to be the spokesman and public face of its anti-child pornography and child predator campaign, making him a deputy last year. Harmony said O'Neal had been on search warrant executions before.