Ex-NBA participant Charles Oakley just isn’t giving up his battle in opposition to New York Knicks proprietor James Dolan.
For seven years, Oakley has sued over his notorious ejection from Madison Sq. Backyard throughout an altercation in 2017. Many of the case has been thrown out, however now Dolan has been ordered to offer sworn testimony in Oakley’s civil case.
Within the newest twist, Manhattan federal court docket choose Richard Sullivan ordered Dolan, 69, to sit down for a deposition to offer his first-hand account of how Oakley, 60, ended up hauled out of the sector in handcuffs after tussling with safety guards throughout a recreation in opposition to the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Dolan had a courtside seat to the motion right here,” Sullivan wrote in a nine-page ruling on Tuesday. “He possible possesses related information that can not be obtained from different witnesses.”
The choose added that, “most significantly,” the Backyard has “did not convincingly present” that letting Oakley’s legal professionals grill Dolan “will lead to harassment or potential disruption” of the sector’s enterprise.
Oakley, a bruising energy ahead who performed for the Knicks from 1988 to 1998, first sued Dolan and MSG in September 2017. A big chunk of his case has been dismissed over time — however his declare that the sector used an “unreasonable quantity of power” to oust him remains to be pending.
Oakley argues in his go well with that he was being unfairly focused for making jabs at Dolan, who was additionally attending the sport, whereas MSG personnel claimed on the time that Oakley was drunk and belligerent.
Dolan will have the ability to testify about an alleged dialog he had with a safety guard moments earlier than Oakley was faraway from the constructing, the choose wrote.
“On the most simple degree, Dolan was an eyewitness to the removing of Oakley and might present
private observations as to Oakley’s habits that night and the power used to take away him,” the ruling reads.
All claims in opposition to Dolan himself have been tossed from the case.
A spokesperson for MSG Sports activities mentioned in an announcement Wednesday that the bid to depose the billionaire is “simply one other instance of how the authorized maneuverings of Charles Oakley and his legal professionals proceed to waste the time and assets of everybody concerned.”
Douglas Wigdor, an lawyer for Oakley, instructed The Publish on Wednesday that, “Based mostly on his efficiency at his deposition within the Anucha Browne Sanders case, I’m very a lot wanting ahead to questioning Dolan in our places of work within the coming weeks.”
The choose additionally ordered MSG to provide any emails despatched by Dolan concerning the Oakley episode between February 8, 2017 to March 1, 2017, whereas swatting away Oakley’s bid to obtain 4 years’ price of emails as an alternative, which the court docket known as “extreme.”
Oakley is suing for unspecified damages.
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