Some updates from the Isiah Thomas/Knicks sexual harassment trial:

-The Garden is mounting it's attack on Anucha Browne-Sanders' credibility.  It's interesting to note that it's clearly less newsworthy to report when the salacious details don't involve high-profile Knicks players or front office members.  I don't expect anything that happened today to make the front page of the local newspapers, like last week's stuff did.

-The Daily News had a rumor Saturday that the Garden was going to spring a "surprise witness" in the trial.  It seems that prior to working at the Garden, Anucha Browne-Sanders worked at IBM, in the sales department.  While employed there she allegedly complained to her bosses that "the son of a high-powered company exec made sexually inappropriate comments...".  This is obviously suppose to convince the jurors that Sanders has a history of being, what the News describes, as a "chronically litigious serious complainer".

On a sidenote, both the GF and I were disappointed to find out the correct word is "litigious".  I've gotten into the habit of using "litigacious" over the years, and she's been using "legacious".  Neither of us are English lits, obviously.

-The closing paragraph of the article contains some background on why the infamous intern mentioned in Sanders' earlier testimony might show up to court to help out the Garden attorneys:

Former Knick front office employees who knew Decker are angry at Browne Sanders for dragging the St. John's University student and others into her beef with the Garden.

"Anucha didn't take into account the collateral damage she would cause," one said.

It's a double-edged sword... by bringing the intern into the mess, Anucha and her lawyers brought the Garden a lot of bad publicity, right at the beginning of the trial, and maybe were hoping to force the Knicks management into settling.  The Knicks management apparently is going to weather the storm, and now Sander's team faces the very real prospect of the intern testifying against her in the trial.  If she does, that would be a severe blow to their chances of winning the case.

-Today's trial action featured Anucha taking the stand, once again, but this time against the Garden lawyers.  The Garden lawyers brought out e-mails and other evidence in an attempt to make her look like an employee about to get fired resorting to the sexual harassment claims to hold on to her job.  Here are their charges today:

• They presented an e-mail from Garden President Steve Mills to Browne Sanders, in which he questions her priorities:

"I want to stress that you are focused on more ridiculous issues than I can handle," responded Garden president Steve Mills in an e-mail to Browne Sanders after she asked whether her name should precede a rival exec's in the Knicks' media guide.

•  Another angle they took was to frame Sanders as incompetent at her job:

Browne Sanders also admitted it was her idea to get Thomas to sign some 4,500 renewal letters to season ticket subscribers.

"In looking back, I don't think it was a good idea," Browne Sanders testified.

"Did you think in May 2005 you were losing ground with your boss?" Garden lawyer Ronald Green asked Browne Sanders.

She said the thought hadn't crossed her mind because she had recently been handed a glowing review and scored a $76,000 bonus.

Let's grade that exchange as a toss-up.  Sanders remained unfazed by the exchange, and seems to come off as very poised.  On the other hand, Green was able to get the idea that Sanders might have been "losing ground" into the jurors' heads, and that might possibly be the way they will side.

Later Green reinforced the idea again:

"Were you concerned that the relationship with Mr. Mills was not as good as it had been?" Browne Sanders was asked. She replied that she was not.

Green then introduced another e-mail from Anucha, to an undisclosed friend, in which she wrote that she would soon begin revising her resume.  The goal being to make it look like Anucha was afraid of losing her job, and that her sexual harassment suit is just an excuse to cover up for her "firing".  Whether the jury will buy it is to be determined.

-The News reports that a female juror was excused from the case because she "felt uncomfortable after learning that press reports had included her name and hometown".  Those press reports were in the News, btw.  The Daily News continues to sink towards the Post for "least journalistic integrity". 

-So how is the case going so far?  Well, according to a legal expert who did a Q&A with the local media, here are some of the points he brought up:

• Anucha Browne-Sanders seems a credible witness.
  
• She filed two charges against the Garden - one was retaliation.
  
• Her lawyers have done a good job of proving retaliation.  Retaliation is deemed to have occurred if a sexual harassment victim suffers a negative action as a result of the complaint, i.e. poor job evaluations or low grades, denying of advancement opportunities, etc. 
  
• According to this lawyer, Sanders has made a strong case for retaliation taking place - in Dolan's deposition, he says they fired her because "she had asked other employees about harassment."  He claims that was impeding their investigation.  "He's going to have to explain that statement", says the lawyer.  Indeed.  And he might also have to prove that the Garden did, indeed, try to investigate the harassment charges.
• On the actual harassment claim, the Garden is doing much better.  Sanders' team has to prove that it was more than one or even two isolated incidents, but instead an on-going conduct that "impaired" her ability to do her work.  Sexual harassment, I have discovered thanks to this trial, is not a one or two incident thing, but a way of life.
• The lawyer is unable to come up with a good reason for why this wasn't settled before the trial.  His best guess is that Sanders wasn't willing to "budge from $10 million" that she wants.
• For the defense to win, he argues, they must "demonstrate that she engaged in conduct that justified letting her go".  In other words, prove she deserved to get fired. 
  
• That's going to be difficult, he notes, because of her strong work evaluations and bonuses.
• The lawyer notes that despite the large amount of coverage in NYC, it hasn't garnered national attention.  He notes that Isiah should thank OJ for deflecting attention.

-Now to the actual damage that the Garden has suffered.  There is potential for corporate sponsors to turn away from being associated with the Knicks. 

Of course, bad press is bad, but the biggest problem have faced is their record.  If your winning, no one cares if your team looks bad (see the Patriots, for example).  But if a team is losing, and suffering from bad PR... that's a hard 1-2 punch.

And, as NetsDaily wrote here:

Salesmen are rubbing their hands at the prospect of calling long time Knick fans and asking them to compare Houston's comeback in New Jersey with Stephon Marbury's come-on to a Knick intern in New York. Same might be true of the corporate sales staff, who will begin showing off models of Barclays Center skyboxes next month at the New York Times building in Manhattan. Barclays Center will be closer to Wall Street than Madison Square Garden, with less sleaze.

Not good times for the Knicks.
******
On a separate note, while checking out Nets Daily and Hooplah...Nation we became aware of Rod Benson's trying out with the Nets.  As you can imagine, they are all excited about this... for those who don't know, Rod Benson is probably the most famous basketball blogger this side of Gilbert Arenas - here's his website, Too Much Rod Benson.  F*ck Allan Houston, sign Rod Benson.  Me, personally, I'm excited because it might lead to seeing Vince Carter on the volleyball court - Rod Benson is a sick ass v-ball player.  Check it out (found via Nets Daily):

Leave a comment

Also on the Network: √ 2009: The Curse Of Shea Stadium [Loge 13] √ Braden Looper: Now More than Ever! [El Lefty Malo] √ The Ballad of Ricky-Bobby: March Madness [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Playing Pepper 2010: Oakland Athletics [C70 At The Bat] √ Book Review: Joe Cronin, A Life In Baseball [C70 At The Bat] √ Happy Birthday, Loge 13 [Loge 13] √ Things to Read: 3/11 [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ The Farm Team to Watch [El Lefty Malo]

 Subscribe to my feed

3 Comments

Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Please only click "Post" once. It may take a few moments to process.