Apparently the intern still works for the Garden, in the communications department of its Foundation. She also appeared on the game show "Power of 10" (that's the Drew Carey hosted one on CBS... no, not "The Price is Right"... the other one) last month. But this is the big line:
"Garden lawyers have hinted that Decker could finger Sanders for allegedly forcing her to lodge the internal complaint. "
One more note in the Knicks' trial: Today's Daily News headline is "Sex book bombshell rocks Garden". Here's how they reported it:
"The fired Knicks honcho claims she told her Madison Square Gardens bosses in 2005 that members of the Rangers' front office were keeping a Kama Sutra wishlist they would like to try out on members of the team's on-ice cheerleading troupe."
Here's the actual exchange from the court transcript:
[Lawyer for
plaintiff Sanders, Kevin Mintzer]: "Ms. Browne Sanders received information
from her staff...there had been some book being maintained by some Rangers
executives that reflected sexual positions and things like that that they were
interested in keeping track of versus what they wanted from what skater... She
was aware from one of her staff members that supposedly the book existed."
[Lawyer for
the defendant MSG, Ronald Green]: "The Rangers situation has nothing to do with
Browne Sanders. It's a different team."
The Judge
agreed with the Garden. He upheld their
objection, and that was the end of that discussion.
So there
you go. Now, here is my questions for
the local newspapers, particularly the Daily News:
-Why are
you leading today's paper, and its front page headline, with testimony that wasn't
even admissible in the trial according to the judge? Isn't that somewhat journalistically irresponsible?
General
questions:
-Which is
more damaging to the everyday life of the intern mentioned in this proceeding?:
a) Having consensual sex with Stephon Marbury?
b) Having your former colleague (Browne Sanders)
publicly throw you under the bus for her own gain?
c) Having the local newspapers (both the Post
and Daily News) splash your name on the internet, along with other important
information (age, school) so that everyone you know is now aware that you had sex with Marbury?
"I like your shoes," Steph said,
launching into a running monologue as we media jackals followed him in a pack.
"Comfortable? Better than heels, sure, especially with the way the hills
are here."
"Are you teasing me?" the reporter asked.
"No! I said I liked them. How is that
teasing?" asked Steph, flashing the big smile that he likes to save for TV
cameras and his cable talk show.
Oh
man. That was vicious, Stephon! Or maybe it was... earnest? Honest?
Point being, you aren't being presented the details of the exchange in most media accounts, but rather their opinion of it.
Similarly,
you're hearing about Marbury's sexual encounter (which is of no relevance to
the case - like today's headline-making exchange, the judge disallowed
it). You're not hearing that this whole
incident - including the headline making alleged comment by Marbury's cousin
about Anucha ("I bet your p*ssy looks good, too") - all took place way outside of the office, so it isn't
necessarily relevant to the trial itself.
It took place at the then-21 year old intern's birthday celebration,
which was at an unnamed strip club.
Or that the
sex episode took place in Marbury's truck, outside
her dorm. In other words, we are
being told that she allegedly felt pressured to have, what she deemed "consensual
sex", when she was at home already? With
a guy whose pressure consisted of supposedly asking her "if she was going to
get in or not"? Why? What pressure? Because she might get fired from her... internship?!?
On the flip
side, here is some interesting testimony from Court TV's account):
"Please let him
know that I am not comfortable with his touching at all," the e-mail
stated.
Browne Sanders said
she never got a reply to that e-mail either.
At that point, Browne
Sanders said, she started asking her employees for documentation about all sexually
harassing incidents.
"I wanted to
make sure [Mills] addressed all of my concerns," she said. "I wanted
to have a record."
Now that's
what I've been wondering about! If she
felt she was being harassed, did she try to get documentation of it? Apparently she is claiming she did. So where is the documentation? Where are the e-mails? Are they part of the evidence in the trial?
Shortly after her
meeting with Garden executives, Browne Sanders said she was told not to come
back to her job because the Garden was going to investigate her claims. A
letter dated Dec. 10, 2005, requested that she meet with representatives from
human resources.
"But then they
said they wanted me to take a vacation," she said. "Then they told me
they didn't want me to come back until further notice."
Those last comments
were stricken by the judge after a lengthy sidebar with lawyers from all the
parties.
That again
does not bode well for Sanders' case.
Finally,
some more interesting testimony from the case:
When Green asked why
she hadn't ever complained to human resources if she felt she was being
sexually harassed, Browne Sanders denied that was true.
"No, I went to
the highest ranking official in Madison Square Garden," she said,
referring to Mills.
Browne Sanders denied
ever calling Thomas a thug, but said she might have called his behavior
"thuggish."
She also denied ever
making claims that Thomas was all ego.
At the end of the day, I think no one is coming out of this looking good - not Sanders, not Isiah, not Dolan and the front office of the Knicks. Not the intern nor Marbury. Even though I feel the worst for the two of them - they seem to have very little to do with this trial. But the local media isn't interested in covering the "trial"... they are apparently only interested in getting whatever details they can that will allow them to put the Garden into as bad a light as possible.
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6 Comments
Comments
"I have to say there were times when i was in intern where I didn't want to go to lunch with co-workers but felt I needed to in order to stay in good standing."
As an intern, I might've felt pressure to have lunch, but I never felt pressured to bang anyone. I didn't need the job that badly.
No, I agree with you. I do think the Garden sounds like an unprofessional place to work. I agree that sexual harassment can take place outside of the work place. But this wasn't relevant to the trial, as the judge ruled.
I disagree about the intern - Anucha brought up her testimony first. If she hadn't, the Garden would have no reason to bring the intern to court. The reason I wrote about it is because I was wondering how Sanders was able to "testify" her words on the incident, instead of having the intern herself testify. Now we see that it may have backfired against her.
And I agree that she probably won't give negative testimony against her employer, the Garden... although it should be noted that Marbury's testimony was exactly "positive", right? Again, Sanders shouldn't have brought her into the case if she isn't going to help her case, right?
I think her lawyers, honestly, are pushing salicious details as much as possible, hoping that the Garden will get cold feet and settle just to make this go away. Their not dumb - they are high-priced lawyers, and they know the best way to force a settlement is to embarrass the defendant. Right?
At the end of the day, I can't feel any sympathy for either of the parties - Sanders doesn't really have a strong case, in my opinion, and is relying on trying to embarrass the Garden. ESPN had a stronger case against Harold Reynolds! The Garden (and Isiah), on the other hand, comes off as looking awful, too. They didn't take her claims seriously, and their front office lacks professionalism. And they look arrogant and stupid for not settling.
Hard for me to feel any sympathy to either side.
I don't know man, maybe lunch and banging are on the same level for the intern?
I think the Garden has something up their sleeve that just came up because they just announced the Intern as a witness, whereas Sanders has had the Intern on her witness list the entire time. It is weird though that they didn't call her up just to say what Sanders recalled in her testimony.
I don't know, maybe I'm naive in this instance. I just read that CourtTV link you provided and I think now, more than ever, that she's getting pushed around. I'm not going to start rioting if she loses, but I'll be a bit disappointed.
-Which is more damaging to the everyday life of the intern mentioned in this proceeding?:
a) Having consensual sex with Stephon Marbury?
b) Having your former colleague (Browne Sanders) publicly throw you under the bus for her own gain?
c) Having the local newspapers (both the Post and Daily News) splash your name on the internet, along with other important information (age, school) so that everyone you know is now aware that you had sex with Marbury?
I can't accurately answer this question without a proper STD screening for Marbury.
During my yearly sexual harassment training here at work they clearly state that sexual harassment can take place outside of the office and outside of office hours, yet still be considered 'sexual harassment' if it's between two employees.
I'm seeing this trial completely differently than you are it seems. Maybe because I'm further away and don't have the historical knowledge of NY like you do. It seems that Sanders is getting pushed around quite a bit by the Garden because she's one person. It's kind of sad to see. Like how they are now going to bring the intern up to go against Sanders? What's that? Do you think she's going to give truthful testimony against her employer? All she is going to do is get up there and say, "Yeah, I wasn't going to file a report, but then Sanders told me to...." Which, as management, she should tell her employee(s) to do.
Also...a lot of times internships lead to full-time jobs (which they did in this case), so I could see why the girl would feel pressured. I have to say there were times when i was in intern where I didn't want to go to lunch with co-workers but felt I needed to in order to stay in good standing.
Like you said, it's all 'He said, She said' and everyone is going to look bad in the end.
As for the way the media is portraying it....you would know better than I.