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James Dolan Must Face Deposition In Lawsuit Over Charles Oakley MSG Ejection, Judge Says

Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan must sit for deposition in a lawsuit over the 2017 ejection of ex-NBA player Charles Oakley from a Knicks game.

A federal judge says Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan must sit for a deposition over the infamous 2017 ejection of ex-NBA player Charles Oakley from the Manhattan arena, ruling that the CEO “had a courtside seat” for the incident. After litigation resumed, the same judge later tossed it again, pointing to video evidence showing Oakley had “unilaterally escalated the confrontation, leading to his eventual forcible removal.” But last year, an appeals court overturned parts of that ruling, too. With Oakley’s lawyers demanding a deposition to help prove those claims, MSG argued that Dolan was a so-called apex witness – the kind of top-level executive that judges rarely pull into court cases unless they’re directly involved in the alleged wrongdoing.

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