The attorney for the family of an unarmed Black California man shot to death by transit police now says that the ordeal never would have occurred if the officers had not been engaged in an affair.

In his $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit, filed with the Alameda County Courthouse, Attorney John Burris contends in that the two Bay Area Rapid Transit officers who confronted 22-year-old Oscar Grant on the train on New Year’s Day were involved in an “unprofessional relationship.”

Burris’ complaint contends that a female officer "got in the face of the young men (suspected of being in the fight) and repeatedly pointed her Taser at them, threatening to tase them in the face." But Grant stepped up to her eye to eye, prompting a male officer to rush over and push him to the ground "while threatening to Taser him," the complaint says, according to SFGate.com.

Grant and the officers argued back and forth, and another male officer, Johannes Mehserle, came over to assist in restraining Grant, then pulled his weapon and fired once into Grant’s back, SFGate.com reports. Mehserle now faces murder charges.

"It is said that the relationship is an 'open secret' within the department," Burris wrote, proffering his misplaced chivalry thesis. "We are concerned that the relationship may have contributed to the circumstances surrounding the shooting."

Last month, Burris also mentioned an inappropriate relationship between the male and female officer, saying that "a number of sources, some within your department," new of the affair. "We will provide names if asked," he continued. But Dale Allen, the attorney representing BART, described the allegations as "unseemly and salacious" and said he refused to “dignify them with a comment."