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.