Federal judge says Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan must sit for a deposition regarding the former NBA player's infamous 2017 suspension Charles Oakley from the Manhattan arena, ruling that the CEO “had a courtside seat” for the incident.
MSG had argued that Dolan has little relevant information on the remaining issues in the long-running lawsuit, in which Oakley accuses the company of assault and battery. MSG's attorneys suggested the deposition offer was just another attempt to “harass” Dolan in the midst of a “malicious” lawsuit.
But in a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Richard Sullivan rejected those arguments and ordered Dolan to depose — saying the executive branch had “a court for the action here” and “likely possesses relevant knowledge that cannot be obtained from other witnesses.”
“At the most basic level, Dolan was an eyewitness to Oakley's removal and can provide personal observations regarding Oakley's behavior that night and the force used to remove him,” the judge wrote.
In a statement Thursday, an MSG spokesman said Bulletin board: “This is just another example of how the legal maneuverings of Charles Oakley and his lawyers continue to waste the time and resources of everyone involved.” In his own statement, Oakley's attorney Valdi Licul said: “We are pleased that the court rejected Mr. Dolan's efforts to avoid testifying under oath about Mr. Oakley's removal from MSG. We look forward to questioning him under oath.”
Oakley, a beloved former New York Knick with a controversial relationship with Dolan, was removed from the Garden on February 8, 2017 after an altercation with security guards. Reports of the incident varied widely. Oakley claimed he had done nothing wrong, but MSG said he had engaged in “abusive behavior” before he was kicked out.
Dolan is the majority owner/CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, a live music giant that operates the famous New York arena in addition to Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall, the Las Vegas Sphere and other prominent venues. He is also the majority owner of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., which owns the Knicks.
Months after the incident, Oakley sued both Dolan and MSG, alleging a wide range of legal wrongs. Since then, the case has been on a seven-year journey up and down the federal court system.
Sullivan initially dropped the lawsuit in 2020, but a federal appeals court later overturned the decision and revived the case. After the trial resumed, the same judge later threw it out again, showing video evidence that Oakley had “unilaterally escalated the conflict, leading to his eventual violent removal.” But last year, an appeals court also overturned parts of that decision.
The current iteration of the lawsuit targets only MSG, not Dolan personally, and only includes assault and battery claims, which focus on whether company employees used unreasonable force to remove him from the arena.
With Oakley's attorneys demanding testimony to help prove those claims, MSG argued that Dolan was a so-called top witness — the kind of top executive that judges rarely bring to court cases unless they are directly involved in the alleged wrongdoing. .
But in his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Sullivan said Dolan was “far from the original star witness” as Oakley claims Dolan spoke personally to a security guard before the incident and later signaled for them to remove him. Oakley from the arena. .
“Dolan is one of only two people who can confirm the content of this conversation,” the judge wrote. “Only Dolan can explain whether he signaled the guard and, if so, what his signal was intended to convey.”
Sullivan didn't give Oakley's lawyers everything they wanted. They were also seeking a court order that would have allowed them to dig through four years of Dolan's emails, but the judge only gave them access to emails from a three-week period immediately after the incident.
“Oakley has not articulated how Dolan's emails from years after the incident are likely to yield evidence as to whether the MSG defendants used reasonable force in removing Oakley from MSG on the night in question,” the judge wrote. “Such extensive discovery would be disproportionate to the needs of this case.”
No deposition date has yet been scheduled in court records, and Dolan's attorneys could seek to challenge Tuesday's ruling before he actually meets with Oakley's attorneys.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/james-dolan-deposition-charles-oakley-msg-ejection-lawsuit/
