By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 14 – Following the ejection of former Knick Charles Oakley from Madison Square Garden by security guards who had just conferred by James Dolan, a lawsuit is still proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Back on December 22, 2020 Judge Richard J. Sullivan held arguments. Inner City Press live tweeted them here
Jump cut to November 20, 2024 after remand from the Second Circuit, a hearing on the loss of Oakley's text message, thread
On April 14 Judge Sullivan denied Oakley's request to disqualify Randy Mastro now that he is Eric Adams' deputy mayor, stating "
, the alleged conflict at issue here does not fall into either of the two categories identified above. There is certainly no concern about the vigor of Mastro’s representation of MSG, and there is nothing to indicate that Mastro will now have access to privileged information about Oakley that could provide MSG with an unfair advantage. See Nyquist, 590 F.2d at 1246. Rather, Oakley relies on the conflicts of interest provisions of the New York City Charter. But he points to no case law where a court has disqualified counsel on these grounds, particularly in light of the availability of other potential disciplinary mechanisms. And even assuming that the Court had the authority to disqualify counsel based on a violation of the New York City Charter, Oakley has not established any factual basis from which the Court could conclude that disqualification was warranted here. As Mastro makes clear, the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (the “COIB”) has determined that there is no conflict of interest and that 'Mastro may continue to represent MSG, so long as he does not participate at the Mayor’s Office in any matter involving MSG.'"Full Order on Patreon here
More on X for Subscribers here and Substack here
The case is Oakley v. Dolan et al., 17-cv-6903 (Sullivan)
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