NEW YORK – A jury can decide whether former New York Knicks star Charles Oakley was ejected from Madison Square Garden with excessive force when he was removed as a spectator to a 2017 game, an appeals court ruled Monday.
Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated assault and battery claims Oakley made in a lawsuit brought against the team’s owners after his February 2017 removal from a game the Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The appeals court, though, rejected Oakley's claims of defamation and false imprisonment.
Oakley was a Knicks fan favorite from 1988 to 1998.
It said Dolan and Madison Square Garden then launched a defamatory public relations campaign, accusing Oakley of abusing fans and staff, acting inappropriately and struggling with alcoholism.