Ono Reportedly Sues Ex-Employee
Ex-Beatle John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, filed a federal lawsuit in
New York Tuesday (April 13) against a former employee who stole photos, unreleased
recordings and other Lennon memorabilia from her, according to a Reuters report.
The employee, Frederic Seaman, pleaded guilty in 1983 to a charge resulting from the
thefts, and was ordered to return all stolen items to Ono as a condition of his parole.
Since then, Ono's suit claims, Seaman has given stolen photos of Lennon to a TV show
and has attempted to publish the photos on his own. Capitol Records filed a separate
lawsuit against Seaman Tuesday in response to his claim that he owns the rights to a
photo of Lennon that Capitol printed in its John Lennon Anthology box set (1998),
according to the report. Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment Dec. 8,
1980.