For the third—and MSG Networks hopes, final—time, a federal judge has dismissed Charles Oakley’s assault-and-battery lawsuit over his removal from Madison Square Garden against his will during a New York Knicks-Los Angeles Clippers game in 2017.
U.S. Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan on Friday granted MSG summary judgment, reasoning that the 62-year-old former Knicks star failed to produce corroborating evidence that he was assaulted by MSG security guards. In fact, Sullivan went so far as to write that “as the videos of the incident reveal, it was Oakley—who is six feet, nine inches tall and weighs roughly 270 pounds—who struck the guards, not the other way around.”
MSG had the right to expel Oakley from the Garden. A ticket provides a license to enter and remain at the stadium and can be revoked if the ticketholder fails to comply with stadium conduct rules. MSG also had the right to use reasonable force to remove Oakley after he refused to leave.
The core legal question in Oakey’s lawsuit is straightforward: Did MSG used excessive force in trying to remove Oakley?
Sullivan concluded the answer is no.
