Lute Olson

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University of Arizona men's basketball coach Lute Olson accused his estranged wife of filing spurious petitions in their divorce case to "harass" him and tarnish his reputation, a court document filed Friday shows.

Last week, Christine Olson accused the coach of improperly transferring funds from a joint account, in violation of a court injunction. A hearing on the complaint is set for May 7.

In a response filed Friday, Lute Olson said he transferred the funds only because, although they specifically belong to him, they were being deposited into the joint account.

Christine Olson "has a long history of taking funds from joint accounts," he charges in court documents.

Christine Olson and her attorney, Kathleen McCarthy, have said Lute Olson transferred funds from a Charles Schwab account, one of five joint accounts he shares with his wife, to another Schwab account that bears only his name — despite a court order prohibiting such actions.

In today's response, Lute Olson's attorney, Leonard Karp, said the two sides had an informal agreement that Olson's Nike shoe contract and the funds from the Olson Family Limited Partnership would be separated from any joint account.

"The Schwab account … shall be divided by Lute, keeping all which came from his Nike payments, and the balance will be split between the parties depending on the source of the money going into the account," Karp wrote to McCarthy in a March 11 e-mail, seeking a confirmation from Christine Olson about an agreement.

Although the money was moved to a different account, to which Christine Olson does not have access, Karp noted the funds are intact and available for the court to allocate.

It's unclear whether Christine Olson did agree to such terms.

McCarthy referred questions to Gordon James, Christine Olson's public relations spokes-man, who said he didn't know whether there were any informal agreements.

As far as filing court petitions to garner media attention, James said the court documents are public record, and neither Christine Olson nor anyone associated with her contacted the media about her court filing.

"We haven't reached out to any media," he said.

Lute Olson said, through his lawyer, that Christine Olson "knows her pleading will draw considerable media attention," and said that's why she's including "false and misleading statements" in her court filings.

At about the same time the response was being filed Friday morning, the Olsons took their case to the airwaves, phoning in alternatively to popular radio station KRQQ — an airing of laundry that James called "interesting."

Although Lute Olson repeated many of the complaints in his court response, Christine Olson said she still loves Lute and didn't understand how things had fallen apart.

Karp has asked Pima County Superior Court Judge Sarah Simmons, who is presiding over the case, to reject Christine Olson's claims.