Oct 2, 2007 11:37 am US/Eastern
Madison Square Garden To Pay $11M For Harassment
New York Knicks Venue Says It Will Appeal Ruling
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A jury in New York has found that New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden sexually harassed a former team executive.
AP
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 over her harassment lawsuit.
A verdict earlier Tuesday found that Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually harassed Browne Sanders, subjecting her to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but also said he does not have to pay punitive damages.
But the jury did find that Madison Square Garden committed harassment against the woman, and decided that she is entitled to punitive damages from MSG.
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.
The Garden said it would appeal.
After an ugly, three-week trial, the verdict gave Thomas a partial victory in the $10 million lawsuit.
"I'm innocent, I'm very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing," Thomas said. "I'm extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this 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."
U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an "eminently reasonable" verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.
Browne Sanders' lawyer, Anne Vladeck, had urged the jury to afix damages that sent a message "to avoid this happening to somebody else." She said the defendants had ruined her client's career, and she called Dolan a liar.
Thomas's lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent "a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.
"Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about," he said.
The harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.
After the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom.
"We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect," MSG said in a statement. "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."
NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league's policies "do not encompass civil litigation."
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.)
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