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BasketballJones
Posts: 31973
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Joined: 7/16/2002
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USA
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Jury rules against Knicks coach
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A jury ruled Tuesday that New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas sexually harassed a former top team executive, subjecting her to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults.
The jury also found that Madison Square Garden committed harassment against Anucha Browne Sanders, and ruled that MSG should have to pay her punitive damages. The same jury will now begin deciding the amount of damages.
The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas and the other defendants, Madison Square Garden and MSG chairman James Dolan, sexually harassed Browne Sanders, who filed a $10 million lawsuit.
The jurors were back at work Tuesday.
On Monday, the wording of their note - and instructions on a verdict form they were using - indicated they believed Thomas and the other defendants, Madison Square Garden and MSG Chairman James Dolan sexually harassed a former Knicks executive.
The note likely means that after two full days of deliberations, the jury in federal court in Manhattan has decided "against the Garden, against Thomas and against Dolan," said Jerry Reisman, an employment attorney with the Long Island firm Reisman, Peirez and Reisman.
Like many legal observers, Reisman said a verdict against MSG "would be demonstrative of its arrogance in not settling this matter" with Browne Sanders and risking the embarrassment of letting it go to trial.
The four women and three men on the panel said they reached a decision on eight of the nine questions on the verdict form. They were deadlocked on the other question, which asks whether Thomas should have to pay punitive damages.
The jury was instructed only to address the question on Thomas if it first found that he and Madison Square Garden committed harassment against the former executive. Similarly, it was told to answer other remaining questions only if it decided that the defendants retaliated against Anucha Browne Sanders by firing her from her $260,000-a-year job.
Browne Sanders' case presented the Garden as an "Animal House" in sneakers, a place where nepotism, sexism, crude remarks and crass language were part of the culture.
The plaintiff, a married mother of three, spent four days on the witness stand laying out her case against the Garden and Thomas, who is married with two children.
Browne Sanders, 44, a former college basketball star at Northwestern, characterized Thomas as a foul-mouthed lout who initially berated her as a "bitch" and a "ho" before his anger gave way to ardor, with Thomas making unwanted advances and encouraging her to visit him "off site."
Thomas, hired in December 2003, followed her to the stand and denied all her allegations. Attorneys for Thomas and the Garden also portrayed Browne Sanders as incompetent and unable to adapt once the NBA great arrived as the Knicks' president.
"That's not about sexual harassment," MSG attorney Ronald Green said in his closing argument. "That's about team politics."
Thomas acknowledged trying to kiss Browne Sanders in December 2005, asking her "No love today?" when she recoiled. MSG President Steve Mills said he spoke with Thomas about the incident and the former Detroit Pistons point guard said it wouldn't happen again.
In her closing argument, Browne Sanders' attorney Anne Vladeck made note of Thomas' charismatic style and incandescent grin.
"There is no question Mr. Thomas can be charming and flash an engaging smile," she told the jury. "That does not give him the right to treat Browne Sanders like she is his woman."
Browne Sanders filed her lawsuit after she was fired in January 2006. Dolan, who testified before Thomas, said he dismissed the team's vice president for marketing and business operations after learning she was pressuring Garden subordinates to bolster her complaint. [Edited by - basketballjones on 10-02-2007 11:32]https://
It's not so hard.
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10/2/2007 11:24 AM
