Isiah's jury poised to take him down

[PurpleHaze]

Jury leaning against Isiah

No verdict yet as deliberations will continue Tuesday

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/10/01/isiah.trial.ap/index.html

Posted: Monday October 1, 2007 5:24PM; Updated: Monday October 1, 2007 5:32PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- A jury indicated Monday that it believes New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden committed sexual harassment against a former team executive who brought a $10 million lawsuit that quickly turned into a public relations disaster for the once-proud franchise.

There was no official verdict, but the wording of a note to the judge by jurors makes it clear they have reached decisions on the key points of the trial.

Jurors reached a decision on eight of the nine questions on the jury form; they were deadlocked on the other question, which asks whether Thomas should have to pay punitive damages. That question only becomes relevant if the jury of four women and three men first determines that Thomas and Madison Square Garden committed harassment against the former executive.

The judge sent the jury home for the day, asking the panel to deliberate again on the deadlocked question Tuesday.

Lawyers for both sides declined to comment on the development, which came on the second full day of deliberations.

Anucha Browne Sanders, fired from her $260,000 a year job in 2006, sued Thomas and Madison Square Garden for $10 million. She accused them of sexual harassment and said MSG fired her for complaining about the treatment.

Her case presented the Garden as "Animal House" in sneakers, a place where nepotism, sexism, crude remarks and crass language were part of the culture.

Browne Sanders, a married mother of three, spent four days on the witness stand laying out her case against the Garden and Thomas, who is married with two children.

Browne Sanders, a former Northwestern college basketball star characterized, Thomas as a foul-mouthed lout who initially berated her as as a "*****" and a "ho" before his anger gave way to ardor, with Thomas making unwanted advances and encouraging her to visit him "off site."

Thomas, who was hired in December 2003, followed her to the stand and denied all her allegations. Attorneys for Thomas and the Garden also portrayed Browne Sanders as incompetent and unable to adapt once the NBA great arrived as the Knicks' president.

"That's not about sexual harassment," MSG attorney Ronald Green said in his closing argument. "That's about team politics."

Thomas acknowledged trying to kiss Browne Sanders in December 2005, asking her "No love today?" when she recoiled. MSG President Steve Mills said he spoke with Thomas about the single incident, and the former point guard said it wouldn't happen again.

In her closing argument, Browne Sanders' attorney Anne Vladeck made note of Thomas' charismatic style and incandescent grin.

"There is no question Mr. Thomas can be charming and flash an engaging smile," she told the jury. "That does not give him the right to treat Browne Sanders like she is his woman."

Browne Sanders filed her lawsuit after she was fired in January 2006. MSG Chairman Jim Dolan, who testified before Thomas, said he dismissed the team's vice president for marketing and business operations after learning she was pressuring Garden subordinates to bolster her complaint.

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 *****."

"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.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[Kingzrool]

link

Jury rules Thomas harassed ex-executive; MSG owes her $11.6M

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.
"What I did here, I did for every working woman in America," said Browne Sanders, who came out of the courtroom beaming. "And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning."
"It's for also the women who don't have the means and couldn't possibly have done what I was able to do, she said.

 

[Gargamel]

Clarence Thomas. Isiah Thomas. Hm.

 

[Bricklayer]

Clarence Thomas. Isiah Thomas. Hm.

Er...? Only one similarity I see there on first glance, and surely that
s not what you were aiming for...

 

[Gargamel]

Er...? Only one similarity I see there on first glance, and surely that
s not what you were aiming for...

^ Of course not. Let me drink this Coca-Cola now.

 

[hoopsfan]

^ Of course not. Let me drink this Coca-Cola now.

EEeewwwwww!!

 

[PurpleHaze]

Blacks can call woman ***** but not whites, says Isiah

Sharpton may lead protests against Thomas

Activist minister irate regarding Knicks executive’s defamatory language
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:25 p.m. PT Oct 6, 2007

NEW YORK - Al Sharpton promised to lead protests against Madison Square Garden unless Knicks coach Isiah Thomas apologizes for saying whites and blacks should be held to different standards about the use of derogatory language toward women.
“If, in fact, that’s what Mr. Thomas said, he’s wrong,” the activist minister said at the weekly Harlem gathering of his National Action Network.
Thomas responded that he has nothing to apologize for, and hopes Sharpton will come to the same conclusion.
In a videotaped deposition introduced at his sexual harassment trial, Thomas said: “A white man calling a black female ’*****,’ that is wrong with me. I am not accepting that. That’s a problem for me.”
But, asked whether he would be as angry if the same words came from a black man, Thomas said, “Not as much.”
“I’m sorry to say, I do make a distinction,” Thomas added.
Thomas has since sought to clarify his comments, saying it is wrong for any man to hurl the insult. But he found himself responding to the issue again after Sharpton said the Action Network would picket the Garden during Knicks games unless Thomas apologized or explained himself.
The coach and the activist said they spoke on the phone Saturday morning. Thomas said he told Sharpton his words had been misinterpreted. He said his wife, Lynne, participated in the call.
The deposition tape was played to a jury during a three-week civil trial that ended Tuesday in Manhattan. A jury ordered the owners of the Knicks to pay $11.6 million to a former team executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, after finding she endured two years of insults and unwanted advances from Thomas.
The Garden fired Sanders from her job as the team’s vice president of marketing after she complained about Thomas’s behavior.

Sharpton said that during their conversation Saturday, Thomas complained that his videotaped deposition had been “spliced” in a way that took his comments out of context.
“I said, ’Why have you not made that clear?’ He said, ’Well, I’ve not been able to make it clear,”’ Sharpton said, recounting the conversation.
Speaking at the Knicks’ training camp in Charleston, S.C., Thomas said he hoped Sharpton would judge him based on “the facts” and not “the edited, spliced video that was leaked.”
“I know what I said and what I was talking about, and how I said it was taken out of context and spliced in the video that made it say something else,” Thomas said.
Sharpton’s National Action Network is spearheading a nationwide effort to discourage use of words offensive to women — even if used in songs by popular black hip-hop artists or rappers.
“Our position has nothing to do with whether the person using the language is black or white, rich or poor, friend or foe,” Sharpton said on Saturday, reiterating what he has been saying since the trial ended. “We cannot have different standards for sexism or racism.”
Tamika Mallory, director of the Decency Initiative, said members of Sharpton’s organization would wait until the end of the week to take any action to give Thomas time to explain his comments.
When asked Saturday whether he felt there was anything for which he should apologize, Thomas replied: “I never said it.”
When asked to elaborate, Thomas declined, suggesting his comments frequently were misinterpreted by the media. In one instance, he was quoted as saying that Celtics great Larry Bird would be considered “just another good guy” rather than a mega star, if he were black.
“That’s how you got me on the Bird stuff,” Thomas said. “Whenever you say something, it just twists it.”
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163356/

 

[Gargamel]

He didn't learn from the Bird comment 20 yrs ago.

 

[Dave McNulla]

taken out of context is sooo overused. tell, mr. thomas, what context does it make it better for a black man to say ho than a white man? i know, the context in which you are a black man. not a black woman being called a ho, and not a white man who might have been a slave owner 142 years ago or a bigot today. but that's what you are mr. thomas, a bigot. you denegrate women and make judgement distinctions between peoples of different races.

 

[PurpleHaze]

I applaud Rev. Al Sharpton for speaking out against Isiah Thomas' bigoted hypocrisy and he should definitely picket. Hopefully, Knick fans rise up too and their coach feels the scorching heat. No doubt, if he was white and it was a similar episode he'd be run out of town.

 

[BMiller52]

taken out of context is sooo overused. tell, mr. thomas, what context does it make it better for a black man to say ho than a white man? i know, the context in which you are a black man. not a black woman being called a ho, and not a white man who might have been a slave owner 142 years ago or a bigot today. but that's what you are mr. thomas, a bigot. you denegrate women and make judgement distinctions between peoples of different races.

Couldn't have said it any better.