MANHATTAN (CN) — Madison Square Garden security exercised a reasonable degree of force when they showed former Knicks star Charles Oakley the exit at a 2017 game, a federal judge ruled Monday, tossing out Oakley’s remaining civil claims against the iconic Manhattan arena based on what he called “extensive video footage” of the incident.
In a 10-page opinion granting the Garden summary judgment, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan pointed to ESPN game footage and cellphone video evidence showing Oakley escalate an altercation with New York City Police officers who were in uniform and arena security staff in suits as they removed him from the stadium during the first quarter of the Knicks-Clippers game on Feb. 8, 2017.
"There is no interpretation of the video footage that could lead a reasonable jury to conclude that the degree of force used by MSG security guards to remove Oakley from the Garden was ‘objectively unreasonable,’” wrote Sullivan, who is sitting by designation.
Oakley, who turns 58 next month, brought the case in 2017 against both the Garden and Knicks owner James Dolan. From 1988 to 1998, the 6-foot-10 player affectionately dubbed “Oak Tree” spent 10 years as the Knicks' starting power forward.
Sullivan caught the case originally as a district judge appointed by President George W. Bush and has remained on the case despite his 2018 appointment to the Second Circuit by President Donald Trump.
After Sullivan initially dismissed the suit in February 2020 for failing to allege a plausible legal claim, an appeals panel reversed for Oakley last November, finding that the Madison Square Garden security officers who threw him to the ground were attempting to handcuff someone whom they did not have the authority to arrest.
Sullivan took the case on remand from the Second Circuit and again awarded the arena summary judgment.
"For the past three years," he wrote, "much ink has been spilled describing and characterizing what transpired between Charles Oakley and the security guards tasked with escorting him from Madison Square Garden during a Knicks game in February 2017. ... But at this stage of the proceedings, the case is no longer about words. It’s about evidence. And the undisputed video evidence conclusively demonstrates that the Garden’s security guards did not use excessive force as they escorted Oakley from the arena.
“To the contrary, the video clearly shows that: (1) the guards asked Oakley to leave; (2) they gave him a chance to leave; and (3) when he refused to leave, and in fact escalated the confrontation, they removed him from the Garden by using a degree of force that was indisputably reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances."
Earlier in the ruling, Sullivan pointed to a fan’s cellphone video of the fracas between Oakley and MSG staff.
“The video footage conclusively shows the MSG guards giving Oakley ample opportunity to leave the arena peaceably, under his own power; the same video also shows that Oakley ignored the guards’ entreaties and repeated attempts to direct him toward the exit,” he wrote. “In fact, the video reveals that it was Oakley who unilaterally escalated the confrontation, leading to his eventual forcible removal. Accordingly, no further discovery is needed to explore whether MSG security 'afforded [Oakley] a reasonable opportunity to leave.'"
Representatives for MSG did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon.
MSG and Dolan were represented in the case by high-profile Gibson Dunn attorney Randy Mastro, who previously served as chief of staff for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The ruling Monday denies Oakley the chance to file a second amended complaint adding Dolan as an individual defendant on the revived claims.
In his original complaint, Oakley had alleged the Knicks added insult to injury after his arrest by insinuating in the media that he was being drunk and abusive at the game. The Second Circuit affirmed on appeal last November that Judge Sullivan had properly dismissed those disability-discrimination claims.
Oakley reached a plea deal to resolve the criminal charges against him from the incident, dropping the charges if he stayed out of trouble for six months and kept away from Madison Square Garden for a year.
Oakley’s attorney Douglas Wigdor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.
Knicks owner Dolan is popularly derided by fans due to the team’s weak record over the last decade — a trend that gave way last season as the Knicks made the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Oakley competed last fall in the television series “Dancing With the Stars,” but he was the first elimination of the season. His forthcoming memoir, “The Last Enforcer,” is set to be published next February.
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