New York
MSG contends Oakley’s attorney rewrote portions of manuscript regarding arrest at Knicks game
NEW YORK (AP) — Charles Oakley’s attorney rewrote portions of the manuscript of the former Knicks star’s book to “tell a fundamentally different story from the truth” about the night he was arrested after an altercation at Madison Square Garden, the organization contended in a court filing Monday.
The filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was the latest step in the dispute between the player and the organization that began Feb. 9, 2017, when Oakley began scuffling with arena security not far from Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan and was eventually led out in handcuffs.
Oakley had a poor relationship with Dolan after his criticisms of the team, and has brought assault and battery claims against the Knicks owner in a case that continues after twice being thrown out.
The filing Monday contains passages from “The Last Enforcer” in which Oakley’s thoughts had been crossed out and changed by attorney Douglas Wigdor before being sent back to the publisher.
In one sentence about the altercation, Oakley said he asked security why he had to leave the game against the Clippers and was told, “You have to leave because someone ordered you to leave.” The word “someone” was crossed out and replaced by “Dolan.”
In another sentence where Oakley said he “slipped,” that word was changed to “was eventually pushed down by Dolan’s guys.”
“These were not minor edits at the margins,” MSG said in its filing. “Wigdor edited the final version to tell a fundamentally different story from the truth reflected in each and every one of the earlier drafts of Oakley’s autobiography — a truth that would have been fatal to Oakley’s litigation position.”
MSG said in the filing that Oakley and ghostwriter Frank Isola testified the manuscript was drafted based on “verbatim notes of frequent phone interviews with Oakley to be as accurate as possible, and which Oakley then reviewed for accuracy.”
But Wigdor wrote in an email that the edited version of the book, released in 2022, was accurate.
“The final version of the book is consistent with Oakley’s testimony as well as the evidence and we are confident that a jury will agree,” Wigdor said. “We are also confident that a jury will ultimately conclude that it was Dolan who has repeatedly tried to justify MSG’s unlawful activity by inventing a false narrative to defend the use of unreasonable force to remove Oakley from the Garden.”
New York
North American Soccer League’s lawsuit against US Soccer Federation, MLS is dismissed
A federal court jury sided with the U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer on Monday in an antitrust lawsuit brought against the organizations by a now-defunct league that sued after it did not have its second-tier status renewed.
After the verdict was announced, Judge Hector Gonzalez in Brooklyn dismissed the case brought in 2017 by the North American Soccer League, which disbanded months after the federation’s decision not to renew the status.
The league said in the lawsuit the federation and MLS conspired to maintain a monopoly on pro soccer in the U.S. and Canada. The suit initially sought $500 million in damages.
MLS said the allegations were meritless.
“The jury’s verdict confirms that this case was nothing more than an attempt by NASL to deflect blame for its own failures,” MLS said in a statement. “Since our inception in 1996, MLS has been dedicated to making the necessary investments to elevate the sport of soccer and provide an exceptional experience for players and fans.”
The federation, which is the governing body for soccer in the U.S., called the jury’s decision “an important victory for the broader sports landscape.”
Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for the league, said in an email that an appeal was highly likely. He said without elaborating there were fundamental errors that “prevented the jury from considering important evidence and claims.”
The federation sanctions leagues in three divisions, with the top Division 1 league being the MLS. The awarding of division status is based on a number of criteria including stadium seating capacity, the number of teams and the locations of those teams.
The North American Soccer League, which was founded in 2009, held second-tier status from 2011-17. It said in its lawsuit the federation’s criteria for determining status was anticompetitive and exclusionary and had the effect of preventing the league and others like it from competing against MLS for Division 1 and the United Soccer League in Division 2.
The federation and MLS denied those allegations.
Georgia
Judge orders acquittal of ex-prosecutor on 1 of 2 counts in misconduct trial
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge on Monday ordered the acquittal of a former Georgia prosecutor on one of the two misconduct charges against her, ruling that prosecutors at her trial failed to present any evidence the she obstructed a police investigation of the 2020 killing of Ahmaud .Arbery.
The trial of former District Attorney Jackie Johnson was to continue Tuesday. She still faces a felony charge of violating her oath of office.
Soon after prosecutors rested their case Monday, the judge took the rare step of granting a directed verdict on the misdemeanor obstruction charge against Johnson. The ruling means the judge found the case against Johnson on that single charge was too weak for any reasonable jury to convict her.
“There is not one scintilla of evidence that I’ve heard that would authorize a verdict on that count,” Senior Judge John R. Turner said from the bench.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting the 25-year-old Black man running in their Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie”
Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun.
The men told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar and argued that he was shot in self-defense. No one was arrested for more than two months, until cellphone video of the shooting leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police.
All three men were later convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.
Since Johnson’s trial opened a week ago, prosecutors have tried to build a case that she worked behind the scenes to protect Travis McMichael and his father, a retired investigator from Johnson’s office, even after the district attorney had recused her office from the case.
Prosecutors suffered a setback last week when Glynn County Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Oliver testified that she and Johnson have never spoken about Arbery’s case. Oliver was one of two officers named in the 2021 indictment charging Johnson with obstruction by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest.”
Prosecutors rested their case Monday without calling Stephan Lowrey, the second officer named in the indictment, to testify.
Johnson’s defense attorneys also asked the judge for a directed verdict on the charge that Johnson violated her oath of office, a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
Turner told attorneys he was letting the oath violation charge stand “for the moment.” He asked both sides to submit written briefs with additional legal arguments.
Johnson recused her office from handling Arbery’s shooting because Greg McMichael had worked for her. Prosecutors argue Johnson abused her power by recommending the attorney general appoint a neighboring district attorney, George Barnhill, to oversee the case without disclosing that Barnhill had already advised police that the shooting was justified.
Barnhill testified Friday that he had advised police independently with no input from Johnson.
The judge ordered the jury to return to the courthouse Tuesday morning.
Johnson was voted out of office in November 2020 and largely blamed her defeat on controversy over Arbery’s killing months earlier. A grand jury indicted her in September 2021.
Arkansas
ACLU files lawsuit on behalf of librarian fired after opposing book censorship
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of an Arkansas librarian who was fired after she spoke out against efforts to restrict the public’s access to certain books.
The ACLU of Arkansas filed the lawsuit on behalf of former Saline County Library Director Patty Hector, who was fired in 2023 after being targeted by a campaign that objected to some of the books on shelves. Saline County Judge Matt Brumley, who fired Hector and is a defendant in the lawsuit, said the county would not comment on pending litigation.
“I could not stay silent as calls for censorship targeted marginalized communities and undermined our library’s mission,” Hector said in a statement released by the ACLU of Arkansas. “Losing my job was devastating, but I refuse to let these actions go unchallenged.”
Hector’s lawsuit comes as a record number of books have been removed from shelves in recent years, and Republican-led states have pushed for measures making it easier to challenge books in school and public libraries. One such measure Arkansas enacted in 2023 has been struck down by a federal judge.
Hector was fired after a group called the Saline County Republican Women began a campaign urging the censorship of books that touched on themes involving race or LGBTQ+ themes. Hector spoke out against a resolution the quorum court, the county’s governing board, passed calling for such books to be moved to areas not accessible by children.
The quorum court later passed an ordinance taking away the library board’s authority to hire and fire library staff, instead giving that power to the county judge. Brumley fired Hector less than two months later.
The lawsuit accuses Brumley and the county of violating Hector’s First Amendment rights and asks that the ordinance taking away the library board’s hiring and firing authority be struck down as unconstitutional.
“Ms. Hector was fired for defending the right to read freely and for refusing to let political pressure dictate the operation of a public library,” John Williams, ACLU of Arkansas’ legal director, said in a statement. “Retaliation against her for speaking out on these critical issues is not only unconstitutional — it’s an attack on the principles of free expression and access to information that public libraries stand for.”
The lawsuit also seeks back pay and compensatory damages. According to the complaint, Hector has required therapy to cope with the emotional distress caused by the retaliation against her over her opposition to censoring books.
MSG contends Oakley’s attorney rewrote portions of manuscript regarding arrest at Knicks game
NEW YORK (AP) — Charles Oakley’s attorney rewrote portions of the manuscript of the former Knicks star’s book to “tell a fundamentally different story from the truth” about the night he was arrested after an altercation at Madison Square Garden, the organization contended in a court filing Monday.
The filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was the latest step in the dispute between the player and the organization that began Feb. 9, 2017, when Oakley began scuffling with arena security not far from Madison Square Garden executive chairman James Dolan and was eventually led out in handcuffs.
Oakley had a poor relationship with Dolan after his criticisms of the team, and has brought assault and battery claims against the Knicks owner in a case that continues after twice being thrown out.
The filing Monday contains passages from “The Last Enforcer” in which Oakley’s thoughts had been crossed out and changed by attorney Douglas Wigdor before being sent back to the publisher.
In one sentence about the altercation, Oakley said he asked security why he had to leave the game against the Clippers and was told, “You have to leave because someone ordered you to leave.” The word “someone” was crossed out and replaced by “Dolan.”
In another sentence where Oakley said he “slipped,” that word was changed to “was eventually pushed down by Dolan’s guys.”
“These were not minor edits at the margins,” MSG said in its filing. “Wigdor edited the final version to tell a fundamentally different story from the truth reflected in each and every one of the earlier drafts of Oakley’s autobiography — a truth that would have been fatal to Oakley’s litigation position.”
MSG said in the filing that Oakley and ghostwriter Frank Isola testified the manuscript was drafted based on “verbatim notes of frequent phone interviews with Oakley to be as accurate as possible, and which Oakley then reviewed for accuracy.”
But Wigdor wrote in an email that the edited version of the book, released in 2022, was accurate.
“The final version of the book is consistent with Oakley’s testimony as well as the evidence and we are confident that a jury will agree,” Wigdor said. “We are also confident that a jury will ultimately conclude that it was Dolan who has repeatedly tried to justify MSG’s unlawful activity by inventing a false narrative to defend the use of unreasonable force to remove Oakley from the Garden.”
New York
North American Soccer League’s lawsuit against US Soccer Federation, MLS is dismissed
A federal court jury sided with the U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer on Monday in an antitrust lawsuit brought against the organizations by a now-defunct league that sued after it did not have its second-tier status renewed.
After the verdict was announced, Judge Hector Gonzalez in Brooklyn dismissed the case brought in 2017 by the North American Soccer League, which disbanded months after the federation’s decision not to renew the status.
The league said in the lawsuit the federation and MLS conspired to maintain a monopoly on pro soccer in the U.S. and Canada. The suit initially sought $500 million in damages.
MLS said the allegations were meritless.
“The jury’s verdict confirms that this case was nothing more than an attempt by NASL to deflect blame for its own failures,” MLS said in a statement. “Since our inception in 1996, MLS has been dedicated to making the necessary investments to elevate the sport of soccer and provide an exceptional experience for players and fans.”
The federation, which is the governing body for soccer in the U.S., called the jury’s decision “an important victory for the broader sports landscape.”
Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for the league, said in an email that an appeal was highly likely. He said without elaborating there were fundamental errors that “prevented the jury from considering important evidence and claims.”
The federation sanctions leagues in three divisions, with the top Division 1 league being the MLS. The awarding of division status is based on a number of criteria including stadium seating capacity, the number of teams and the locations of those teams.
The North American Soccer League, which was founded in 2009, held second-tier status from 2011-17. It said in its lawsuit the federation’s criteria for determining status was anticompetitive and exclusionary and had the effect of preventing the league and others like it from competing against MLS for Division 1 and the United Soccer League in Division 2.
The federation and MLS denied those allegations.
Georgia
Judge orders acquittal of ex-prosecutor on 1 of 2 counts in misconduct trial
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge on Monday ordered the acquittal of a former Georgia prosecutor on one of the two misconduct charges against her, ruling that prosecutors at her trial failed to present any evidence the she obstructed a police investigation of the 2020 killing of Ahmaud .Arbery.
The trial of former District Attorney Jackie Johnson was to continue Tuesday. She still faces a felony charge of violating her oath of office.
Soon after prosecutors rested their case Monday, the judge took the rare step of granting a directed verdict on the misdemeanor obstruction charge against Johnson. The ruling means the judge found the case against Johnson on that single charge was too weak for any reasonable jury to convict her.
“There is not one scintilla of evidence that I’ve heard that would authorize a verdict on that count,” Senior Judge John R. Turner said from the bench.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting the 25-year-old Black man running in their Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William “Roddie”
Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range with a shotgun.
The men told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar and argued that he was shot in self-defense. No one was arrested for more than two months, until cellphone video of the shooting leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police.
All three men were later convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.
Since Johnson’s trial opened a week ago, prosecutors have tried to build a case that she worked behind the scenes to protect Travis McMichael and his father, a retired investigator from Johnson’s office, even after the district attorney had recused her office from the case.
Prosecutors suffered a setback last week when Glynn County Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Oliver testified that she and Johnson have never spoken about Arbery’s case. Oliver was one of two officers named in the 2021 indictment charging Johnson with obstruction by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest.”
Prosecutors rested their case Monday without calling Stephan Lowrey, the second officer named in the indictment, to testify.
Johnson’s defense attorneys also asked the judge for a directed verdict on the charge that Johnson violated her oath of office, a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
Turner told attorneys he was letting the oath violation charge stand “for the moment.” He asked both sides to submit written briefs with additional legal arguments.
Johnson recused her office from handling Arbery’s shooting because Greg McMichael had worked for her. Prosecutors argue Johnson abused her power by recommending the attorney general appoint a neighboring district attorney, George Barnhill, to oversee the case without disclosing that Barnhill had already advised police that the shooting was justified.
Barnhill testified Friday that he had advised police independently with no input from Johnson.
The judge ordered the jury to return to the courthouse Tuesday morning.
Johnson was voted out of office in November 2020 and largely blamed her defeat on controversy over Arbery’s killing months earlier. A grand jury indicted her in September 2021.
Arkansas
ACLU files lawsuit on behalf of librarian fired after opposing book censorship
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of an Arkansas librarian who was fired after she spoke out against efforts to restrict the public’s access to certain books.
The ACLU of Arkansas filed the lawsuit on behalf of former Saline County Library Director Patty Hector, who was fired in 2023 after being targeted by a campaign that objected to some of the books on shelves. Saline County Judge Matt Brumley, who fired Hector and is a defendant in the lawsuit, said the county would not comment on pending litigation.
“I could not stay silent as calls for censorship targeted marginalized communities and undermined our library’s mission,” Hector said in a statement released by the ACLU of Arkansas. “Losing my job was devastating, but I refuse to let these actions go unchallenged.”
Hector’s lawsuit comes as a record number of books have been removed from shelves in recent years, and Republican-led states have pushed for measures making it easier to challenge books in school and public libraries. One such measure Arkansas enacted in 2023 has been struck down by a federal judge.
Hector was fired after a group called the Saline County Republican Women began a campaign urging the censorship of books that touched on themes involving race or LGBTQ+ themes. Hector spoke out against a resolution the quorum court, the county’s governing board, passed calling for such books to be moved to areas not accessible by children.
The quorum court later passed an ordinance taking away the library board’s authority to hire and fire library staff, instead giving that power to the county judge. Brumley fired Hector less than two months later.
The lawsuit accuses Brumley and the county of violating Hector’s First Amendment rights and asks that the ordinance taking away the library board’s hiring and firing authority be struck down as unconstitutional.
“Ms. Hector was fired for defending the right to read freely and for refusing to let political pressure dictate the operation of a public library,” John Williams, ACLU of Arkansas’ legal director, said in a statement. “Retaliation against her for speaking out on these critical issues is not only unconstitutional — it’s an attack on the principles of free expression and access to information that public libraries stand for.”
The lawsuit also seeks back pay and compensatory damages. According to the complaint, Hector has required therapy to cope with the emotional distress caused by the retaliation against her over her opposition to censoring books.
