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The New York Times
pro basketball
Garden Settles
Harassment Case
for $11.5 Million
By RICHARD SANDOMIR,
nytimes.com on the Web, December 11, 2007
Three days before a federal judge was
to hear testimony on Anucha Browne Sanders’s claim for compensatory damages
against Madison Square Garden, the parties settled the sexual harassment case
yesterday and ended all appeals.
In the settlement, the Garden agreed to pay her $11.5 million, including $4
million in legal fees, said a person with knowledge of the confidential
agreement. That is $100,000 less than the punitive damages a jury awarded
Browne Sanders in October. Before the settlement, she had been seeking an
additional $9.6 million in compensatory damages.
The settlement potentially saved the Garden millions of dollars, but a judge
also could have reduced the size of Browne Sanders’s punitive damages.
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Daniel Berry/Bloomberg News
Anucha Browne Sanders |
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The Garden had staunchly refused to
settle with Browne Sanders before the trial began in September in United States
District Court in Lower Manhattan. The Garden instead opted to weather
three weeks of frequently sordid testimony, none more so than that of Stephon
Marbury’s sexual tryst in his truck with a team intern.
But in a statement, the Garden said that “at the strong request” of N.B.A.
Commissioner David Stern “and in the interest of focusing on basketball, we can
all agree that it is time for us to move on and put this issue behind us.”
Stern was unavailable to comment on his role in pressing the Garden to settle.
Stern has been coy about whether he has the power to punish the Garden over the
sexual harassment case or to take action to diminish the powers of James L.
Dolan, the Garden’s chairman.
But Stern has voiced concern, even scorn, about the verdict. Browne
Sanders, a former senior marketing executive for the Knicks, accused Coach Isiah
Thomas of verbally abusing her and of making unwanted advances. She was
fired by Dolan, whom she accused of retaliation for making her accusations
against Thomas. Dolan and the Garden, but not Thomas, were ordered by the
jury to pay punitive damages.
On Oct. 5, Stern told reporters in Istanbul: “I can assure the public that
sexual harassment is not acceptable in the N.B.A. workplace.”
On Oct. 29, he offered a tart response when asked by ESPN what the Browne
Sanders case said about the state of the Knicks. “It demonstrates that
they’re not a model of intelligent management,” he said. “There were many
checkpoints along the way where more decisive action would have eliminated this
issue.”
Despite agreeing to settle with Browne Sanders, the Garden and Thomas remained
defiant about the jury’s verdict against them.
“The outcome was a travesty of justice,” the Garden said in a statement.
“As I’ve said before, I am completely innocent,” Thomas told reporters before
the Knicks’ game against Dallas last night. “This decision doesn’t change
that. However, it’s in the best interest of Madison Square Garden to move
forward, and I fully support it.”
Before Thomas spoke, Jonathan Supranowitz, the Knicks’ vice president of public
relations, told reporters that Thomas would not take questions about the
settlement and that he would cut off any questions about it.
Browne Sanders said in a statement that she was “extremely pleased” with the
settlement. She added, “It is my hope that all women will be able to work
in an environment that is free of discrimination and harassment, and that any
woman who stands up for her rights will be taken seriously by her employer
rather than retaliated against.”
Browne Sanders is the senior associate athletic director for marketing at the
University at Buffalo. She declined a request to elaborate on her
statement.
The Garden’s decision to settle in advance of Thursday’s hearing before Judge
Gerard E. Lynch “puts a finality to the case and they don’t have to go through
appeals, which are very costly,” said Dona Kahn, an employment litigator who is
of counsel to Anderson, Kill & Olick. If the hearing proceeded, she added,
the Garden “would be on trial again and it would be all over the newspapers.
She’d testify about how awful life was and how the harassment affected her.”
The settlement prevents the Garden, Thomas and Dolan from appealing the case and
precludes Browne Sanders’s pursuit of punitive damages against Thomas. A
mistrial was declared on that count during the trial, and a new one could have
been held on whether Thomas should pay Browne Sanders damages, with evidence
presented again.
The Garden faces more legal trouble. Another lawsuit, filed in 2004 by a
former Rangers ice skating cheerleader, Courtney Prince, alleges sexual
harassment. Two former security supervisors, both black women, are
expected to file a suit alleging sexual and racial discrimination.
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