Former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson scored a legal victory by getting a sex tape featuring him and two other women scrubbed from the Internet.
TMZ reports Johnson, formerly Chad Ochocinco, fired off a cease and desist letter to two Web sites that originally posted the video, which then took the footage down from their sites.
The video of the tryst was taken three years ago in a hotel room in Florida, and made its way to the Web this month. Johnson, a former wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots, acknowledges it’s him on the tape, but claims he didn’t leak the footage and that it was taken illegally from his cell phone. The athlete contacted the FBI shortly afterwards.
TMZ reports Johnson and his lawyers fired off a letter to the Web sites stating that the footage was stolen and that the didn’t have the right to publish the video. Johnson is also taking aim at other Web sites who have posted still photos from the video, threatening legal action if they don’t remove the images.
Johnson’s sex tape battle comes on the heels of legal trouble during his short marriage to “Basketball Wives” star Evelyn Lozada. The couple married in August, but divorced a month later after Johnson allegedly head-butted Lozada during an argument at their home.