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Updated Sept. 25, 2007, 10:35 a.m. ET
Female Garden employees say Thomas accuser pressured them to complain about harassment


Anucha Browne Sanders
Former Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders is accusing team president and coach Isiah Thomas of sexual harassment.

NEW YORK — Two female Madison Square Garden employees testified Monday that Anucha Browne Sanders pressured them into making sexual harassment complaints, even though they were hesitant to do so.

Both women said they feared for their job security if they didn't follow their boss's orders.

The picture the two women presented of Browne Sanders, who has filed a $10 million suit accusing Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas of sexual harassment, contradicted Browne Sanders' account of herself as a sympathetic listener and supporter for her staff.

Karin Buchholz, vice president of community relations and fan development, described how she lost respect for Browne Sanders when the former Garden executive dragged her into the sexual harassment investigation.

Buchholz said Browne Sanders would constantly "refresh her memory" about incidents so she "could be prepared" if anyone at the Garden questioned them.

During the Garden's investigation into Browne Sanders' accusations against Thomas, Buchholz testified, Browne Sanders regularly called her to check in on the probe, told her what to say, and pressured her to be on her side.

"She asked me to feed her information," she said. "I felt like I was a mole."

Buchholz also said she was directed to write a memo about any complaints Browne Sanders had ever made to her and specifically dictated what she wanted in those memos.

"She told me what to say," Buchholz testified.

Buchholz looked directly at the jury as she adamantly contended that Browne Sanders made her paranoid about her losing her job.

The testimony comes in the third week of the trial stemming from Browne Sanders' suit, which accuses Thomas, a 12-time NBA All-Star, of calling her profanities and making sexual overtures.

Browne Sanders, a former Northwestern University basketball star who was the Knicks' vice president of marketing and business operations, also accuses the Garden of firing her in January 2006 in retaliation for her complaints.

Garden executives claim she was fired for tampering with the investigation by speaking with her employees about it and soliciting memos from them, as well as for her poor job performance.

Buchholz said that Browne Sanders knew she shouldn't have been talking to her during the investigation, but did anyway.

"I was so uncomfortable," Buchholz said. "She was still my boss. I couldn't believe she was putting me in this position."

Buchholz said she believed Browne Sanders wanted to have "all of her ducks in a row" when she asked peers to document any issues she ever complained about to them.

Browne Sanders once told her that she heard a sexual harassment complaint would "hold up in court" if a secretary or someone else testified they had complained all along to another employee, Buchholz said.

Once Browne Sanders decided to hire a lawyer, Buchholz said, she made her accompany her to the lawyer's office even though Buchholz didn't want to go.

"You had to be with her or you were against her," Buchholz said. "I was scared if I didn't go with her ... that would determine my future at the Garden."

Kathleen Decker, an intern who admitted having sex with Knicks star Stephon Marbury, also said she felt coerced by Browne Sanders into making complaints.

Browne Sanders had testified that Decker complained to her that she felt compelled to get into a truck with Marbury and eventually have sex with him.

Decker contradicted Browne Sanders' story by saying that she wasn't drunk when she got into his truck and was not raped by Marbury. Marbury gave similar testimony last week.

On the stand Monday, Decker said she was in control of the situation at all times and was with Marbury for less than an hour. She said she did not want to report the incident but was scared and felt forced to when Browne Sanders prodded her.

On cross-examination, Browne Sanders' lawyers asked Decker why, if she was so unhappy about being forced to tell about the incident, she sent Browne Sanders a card to thank her for being supportive and listening, and promised not to make similar mistakes "ever again."

"I didn't know if what I did outside of work could affect my job," Decker said.

Earlier in the day, a number of male Garden executives took the stand to say that Browne Sanders had performed poorly on the job and regularly used profanity when speaking of other executives.

John Cudmore, the Garden's senior vice president for finance, said he had heard her call the executive in charge of season tickets, Bill Goldstein, a "f------ prick," Thomas' right-hand-man Frank Murphy a "f------ buffoon" and marketing vice president Betsy Bruce a "f------ bitch."



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