New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― A federal jury has decided that Madison Square Garden and its chairman must pay $11.6 million in damages to former New York Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders.

Earlier, the same jury found that Isiah Thomas and MSG sexually harassed the former Knicks executive, though Thomas will not have to pay punitive damages to Sanders, CBS 2 has learned.

Both Thomas and MSG were also found guilty in creating a hostile environment, while a guilty verdict was reached on the charge of retaliatory firing against Garden officials.

Thomas was found not guilty on two charges, however, including aiding and abetting in retaliation against Sanders. He will not have to pay punitive damages in retaliation for her firing, a partial victory in the ugly three-week trial.

"I want to thank the jury for seeing through the truth this whole trial," Sanders said after the damages decision was announced. "What I did here was for every working woman in America, and everyone that aspires to be in a corporate environment. And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment."

She said it also was for "women who don't have the means and couldn't possibly have done what I was able to do."

The jury found that the Garden owes $6 million for allowing a hostile work environment to exist and $2.6 million for retaliation. MSG chairman James Dolan owes $3 million.

After the decision was reached, Thomas emerged from the Mahattan courthouse and solemnly told reporters he wanted to issue the following statement:

"I am innocent, I am very innocent and I did not do the things she accused me in this courtroom of doing. I'm extremely disappointed that the jury could not see the facts in the case, I will appeal this and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have."

Madison Square Garden officials also released a statement, saying: "We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect and plan to vigorously appeal the verdict. We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly."
  
"The normal operations of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks will continue unabated," the Garden added.

After the verdict, Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.

Sanders was seeking $10 million in damages in the high-profile case after claiming she had been subjected to unwanted sexual advances while being called vulgar and sexually explicit insults.

The jury had begun deliberating on Thursday and apparently reached a decision on most charges on Monday, but was hopelessly deadlocked on one -- which was said to be a decision over punitive damages, which signaled a guilty verdict was on the horizon.

The jury was instructed only to address the question on Thomas if it 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.

Jerry Reisman, an employment attorney with the Long Island firm Reisman, Peirez and 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.

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, a former Northwestern college basketball star, 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, who was 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.

The case, from its inception, proved a public relations nightmare for the Knicks and the Garden, with intense coverage of the three-week trial focusing on its tawdriest aspects -- star guard Stephon Marbury having sex with an intern outside a strip club, raunchy come-ons from a Marbury cousin to his Garden co-workers, Thomas' videotaped remarks about the racial dynamics of calling a woman "a bitch."

"The World's Most Heinous Arena," read one New York Post headline about the case.

The trial did steer attention from the Knicks' on-court woes as the team geared up for its second season with Thomas as head coach. The Knicks finished 33-49 last year and have yet to win a playoff game during the Thomas regime.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)