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Updated Oct. 4, 2007, 2:33 p.m. ET
Jury awards coach's accuser $11.6 million from Madison Square Garden


Anucha Browne Sanders said she filed her sexual harassment suit "for every working woman in America."

NEW YORK — A jury awarded former Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders a total of $11.6 million Tuesday in punitive damages from Madison Square Garden and its chairman James Dolan, but deadlocked on whether Isiah Thomas should be punished financially for sexually harassing her.

Less than one hour after the jury found that Thomas harassed Browne Sanders, it announced the award. The Garden must pay Browne Sanders $6 million in punitive damages for creating a hostile work environment and $2.6 million for firing her in retaliation for bringing harassment claims against Thomas.

Dolan, who was found liable for Browne Sanders being unfairly fired, was ordered to pay $3 million in punitive damages.

The jury found, however, that although Thomas sexually harassed Browne Sanders, he was not involved in the retaliation against her. (VIDEO)

Thomas, Dolan and the Garden will also have to pay compensatory damages, which will be determined by the judge.

Browne Sanders, a former vice president of marketing and business operations for the Knicks, accused Thomas of regularly calling her offensive names, including "bitch" and "ho," commenting on her appearance, and once asking her to go "off site" with him. When she complained to Madison Square Garden management about the treatment, she says, she was fired.

"He was hostile, verbally harassing and angry," Browne Sanders testified. "He always started a sentence with 'Bitch this, bitch that.'"

Browne Sanders, a married mother of three and a former Northwestern University basketball star, said she brought the suit to bring attention to what women too often face in the workplace.

"What I did here I did for every working woman in America, and that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone that aspires to be in a corporate environment and I think the people who are in the corporate environment and do act professionally, so it's for every man in the corporate environment who does act like a professional," she said after the punitive damages were announced.

Browne Sanders rejoiced after the verdict was announced and hugged members of her family.

Her husband, Roy Sanders, thanked the jury.

"It's not about the award, it's about the principle," he said.

Thomas, a 12-time All-Star and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Garden executives vehemently denied the claims. Thomas said he'd never cursed at his colleague and had never expressed an attraction to her.

"I don't think it's appropriate, and it's very offensive for any man — black, white, green or purple — to call any woman a bitch," Thomas testified.

Thomas entered the courtroom Tuesday morning swinging his arms slowly and whistling a somber tune.

He did not react to the jury's decision, but outside the courthouse, he said that he did not harass Browne Sanders.

"I want to say this as loud as I possibly can," Thomas said. "I am innocent. I am very innocent, and I did not do the things that she accused me in this courtroom of doing. I am extremely disappointed that the jury could not see the facts in this case."


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