A former "Dr. Phil" producer broke into a database and stole footage all in an attempt to smear and extort money from Dr. Phil ... so says his production company in a new lawsuit.
Peteski Productions -- which produces "Dr. Phil" -- is suing Leah Rothman for stealing a video shot on board a private plane back in 2014 ... and the company says she specifically targeted a portion of the footage.
In docs, obtained by TMZ, the company argues Rothman accessed a database without authorization a year later ... and recorded a 9-second clip of Dr. Phil speaking to producers on her iPhone. The suit gives no specifics about what's in the footage.
According to the suit, Rothman "copied and recorded only 9 seconds out of thousands of hours of Dr. Phil Show footage." She stopped working for the show in April 2015.
Rothman and Dr. Phil have history -- she sued Dr. Phil in 2016 claiming he locked producers into a room in a profanity-laced meeting to figure out who was leaking stories to the media. It's unclear if this suit is related to Rothman's.
The company's suing for unspecified damages.
We've reached out to Rothman, so far no word back.