Yoko Ono continued a long feud with a former assistant to John Lennon, suing him Tuesday and claiming he stole priceless personal items after the ex-Beatle was killed. In a federal lawsuit Ono contends that the former aide, Fred Seaman, agreed in 1983 to return boxes of Lennon's personal items but held on to hundreds of photos. The lawsuit was prompted by Seaman's claim in a February letter to Capitol Records that a photograph of Lennon with his son Sean overlooking a beach in Bermuda was improperly included in a recently released CD box set. Seaman said he shot the photo and calls Capitol's use of it "an egregious" copyright infringement. Capitol sued Seaman separately on Tuesday, seeking a declaration that the photo does not infringe on any copyrights.

  • Seaman provided extensive material for celebrity biographer Albert Goldman's unflattering portrayal of Lennon and in 1991 published his own book. Although he was kinder than Goldman in describing Lennon, Seaman portrayed Ono as an adulterous heroin addict.