Court TV Radio | Message Boards | Newsletters

Updated Sept. 18, 2007, 3:29 p.m. ET
Knicks star Marbury: 'Nobody ever asked me' about sexual harassment allegations


Stephon Marbury (right) testified that sexual harassment was not coach Isiah Thomas' 'persona.'

NEW YORK — Despite allegations from a senior Knicks official that the team's star, Stephon Marbury, pressured a female intern to have sex with him, Madison Square Garden officials never asked him about the incident, Marbury testified Wednesday in the sexual harassment suit against the Garden and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas.

"Nobody ever asked me that," Marbury testified. Nobody from Garden Chairman James Dolan down ever mentioned the incident to him, he said.

Marbury acknowledged that he encouraged the intern to get in a car with him but didn't address the issue of whether he had sex with her.

Anucha Browne Sanders, who was the Knicks' vice president of marketing and business operations before she was fired in 2006, is asking for $10 million from Thomas and the Garden. She accuses Thomas of sexual harassment and the Garden of firing her when she complained about the treatment.

Marbury laughed off Browne Sanders' allegations against Thomas, saying "it was a joke" and "not his persona" to sexually harass anyone.

But Browne Sanders was dead serious about her accusations that Garden executives ignored allegations of sexual harassment against Marbury and his cousin Hassan Gonsalves, who worked for a time for the Garden, just as they did for her allegations against Thomas.

On the stand for the second day, Browne Sanders was reduced to tears when she described an incident between Marbury and one of her interns.

She said the young woman told her about how she felt pressured to get in Marbury's truck outside her St. Johns University dorm after a birthday party at a strip club in April 2005.

"She told me Stephon said, 'Are you getting in or not?', referring to his truck," Browne Sanders testified.

"Anucha, if it was anyone else, I would have walked away," the intern said, according to Browne Sanders. "I felt like I had to."

Even though the woman said the eventual sexual relations were consensual because she agreed to get in the truck, Browne Sanders said she felt the need to report the incident to Garden president Steve Mills.

Browne Sanders went on to testify about how several female employees on her staff told her that Gonsalves, Marbury's cousin, asked them for oral sex, among other things.

Browne Sanders' lawyers showed an e-mail she sent to Garden executives recounting several comments Gonsalves allegedly made to her staffers.

"I want to f--- you, when are you coming to my apartment?" he allegedly said to one of the women, and a text message asked "When can I stick it in?", among other lewd comments, according to Browne Sanders' e-mail.

She never received a reply to her e-mails, Browne Sanders said. Eventually, Gonsalves was fired.

Browne Sanders said she finally got a chance to air her frustrations at a meeting with several top executives in late 2005.

"I said 'This has got to stop. These are working conditions that don't work for me,'" she testified. "'I want you to make it stop.'"

What followed, Browne Sanders alleged, was a direct threat from Mills.

"He told me, 'You should be prepared for Isiah to start a rumor about you having an affair with [Garden executive] Jeff Nix,'" she testified.

"'Is that a threat?'" Browne Sanders said she replied. "'Do I need a lawyer?'"

Browne Sanders stared directly at Mills as she testified.

She said that, when Thomas tried to hug and kiss her after a game, she sent an e-mail to Mills asking him again to fix the situation.

"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."

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.

Garden lawyer Ronald Green began his cross-examination of Browne Sanders by asking her whether she understood the oath she took when she began testifying.

"When you took the oath, you understood it meant you had to tell the truth?" Green asked.

"Yes," Browne Sanders replied.

He asked if she understood that when she signed legal documents, she was affirming she was telling the truth then, too. When Browne Sanders said she did, Green asked her why she signed tax returns claiming she had another business, if she testified she didn't.

"I thought whatever I was signing, I was signing truthfully," she said.

Green then asked her about her allegations that there were sexual overtones when Thomas hugged her following a Knicks victory. He hinted that perhaps Thomas was just excited because it was a big deal for the Knicks to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves and All-Star Kevin Garnett.

"It was a big deal for the Knicks to win," she said, as the courtroom erupted in laughter.

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.

"No," she testified. "I think we all know that."

Testimony is set to resume Monday. The trial is expected to last another two weeks.



Advertisment




|
|
|
|
|
|
|
COURTTV.COM
|
|
|
UTILITIES
|
|
|
|
|
|
COURT TV SITES
|
CORPORATE
|
|
|
|
TM & © 2007 Courtroom Television Network, LLC. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
CourtTVnews.com is a part of the Turner Entertainment New Media Network.
Terms & Privacy guidelines