NYTimes:Thomas, the Knicks' president, said he needed to publicly rebut sexual harassment charges that were leveled against him by a former Knicks executive in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. The executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said she was fired as the team's senior vice president for marketing and business operations after complaining about Thomas's treatment of her.
"I did not harass Anucha; I did not discriminate against her; I did not fire her; I did not participate in any discussion that led to her being fired; she did not even work for me," he said in a prepared statement.
"I will not allow her or anybody else, man or woman, to use me as a pawn for their financial gain," Thomas added.
Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, also sat at the conference room table, although he is not a defendant in the lawsuit. But as Browne Sanders's supervisor, he is a supporting character in the legal imbroglio, primarily over her assertions that he took no action after she complained that Thomas berated her and refused to let Knicks players participate in her marketing initiatives.
Browne Sanders has also alleged that Mills warned her that if she continued to press the harassment claims, Thomas would spread a false rumor about her.
Sitting stiffly, Mills delivered a short defense, denying that he told her that "any MSG employee was out to harm her or would harm her."
He added: "I was stunned to learn that while she was still employed at MSG, she demanded $6.5 million to leave quietly. Her threat was the only threat I was privy to."
Thomas and Mills left without answering questions.
Two hours earlier, Browne Sanders had her own news conference in her lawyers' office. Referring to Thomas and the Garden, the defendants in her lawsuit, she said she was prepared for "false and vicious accusations that they may spread about me and my family." She called the accusations that she was seeking a financial windfall "a diversion." Like Thomas and Mills, Browne Sanders did not answer questions.
One of her lawyers, Kevin Mintzer, said later in a telephone interview that a settlement was discussed with the Garden before her departure, but $6.5 million was an incorrect figure. He would not reveal what Browne Sanders had asked, and he said there had been no attempt at mediation between the sides.
Lois Carter Schlissel, a lawyer in Mineola, N.Y., who specializes in employment law, said yesterday that the dismissal of an employee shortly after making a sexual harassment or discrimination claim, which happened in Browne Sanders's case, potentially provides the plaintiff with a strong case for retaliation.
"The remedies are just as severe for retaliation as they are for the harassment claims," she said.
