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Warning: The next article comprises descriptions of alleged graphic sexual assault.
A decide dismissed a federal lawsuit filed against New York Knicks and Rangers team owner James Dolan on Tuesday night time that accused him of each pressuring a girl into undesirable intercourse and coordinating an encounter with former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, according to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.
Kellye Croft initially filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles in January. She alleged that Dolan repeatedly pressured her into sex in 2013 and 2014 and that Weinstein — who has been convicted in numerous different sexual crimes lately and was a longtime buddy of Dolan’s — sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills lodge. Croft additionally accused each males of sexual assault and undesirable touching, and accused Dolan of intercourse trafficking.
“We’re more than happy with the dismissal of the lawsuit, which was a malicious try to say horrific allegations by an legal professional who subverts the authorized system for private achieve – this additionally occurs to be the identical legal professional within the Charles Oakley case,” a Dolan spokesperson instructed Yahoo Sports activities in a press release.
The Oakley case stems from an incident during which the previous New York Knicks participant was ejected from Madison Sq. Backyard in 2017. That case remains to be ongoing.
Croft mentioned in her lawsuit that she was employed as a therapeutic massage therapist for the Eagles band for his or her tour in 2013. Dolan’s band, JD & the Straight Shot, was a gap act on that tour. She mentioned that Dolan repeatedly pressured her into having intercourse a number of occasions all through the tour, and that she “felt obligated to undergo intercourse with him.”
When the band had a residence at The Discussion board in Inglewood, California, in January 2014, Croft rejoined the tour to proceed working. She mentioned that she met Weinstein whereas ready for an elevator at a Beverly Hills lodge that month, which she alleged Dolan arrange, and that Weinstein later sexually assaulted her that night time. Croft mentioned she instructed Dolan concerning the assault, and that he was “under no circumstances stunned” as Weinstein “was ‘a troubled individual’ that had lots of ‘severe points.’”
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after he was convicted of quite a lot of totally different intercourse crimes. The allegations levied in opposition to him and eventual convictions helped result in the bigger #MeToo motion in the USA.
Croft’s declare of intercourse trafficking was dismissed with prejudice, that means it may possibly’t be filed once more. Her sexual battery, sexual assault and aiding and abetting of sexual assault claims had been dismissed with out prejudice, that means they are often filed once more. Croft’s attorneys instructed ESPN that they plan to attraction.
“We respectfully disagree with the District Courtroom’s determination, which we imagine incorrectly interprets the federal intercourse trafficking regulation and undermines critically necessary protections for intercourse trafficking survivors,” her attorneys mentioned. “We will likely be interesting this determination and are assured that the Courtroom of Appeals will appropriate this injustice. We can even proceed to pursue Ms. Croft’s sexual battery claims in opposition to James Dolan and Harvey Weinstein, which stay unaffected by [Tuesday’s] determination. Our battle for Ms. Croft is simply starting.”
Dolan has lengthy denied realizing about Weinstein’s sexual misconduct even though they had been buddies and acquaintances for years earlier than the primary allegations surfaced. Dolan as soon as served as a board member for certainly one of Weinstein’s manufacturing firms and even launched a music about it together with his band in 2018. A lawsuit filed in 2017, that was later settled, alleged that quite a lot of males on the board of Weinstein’s firm knew about his conduct and had been complicit in overlaying it up.
Dolan has led the Madison Sq. Backyard Sports activities Firm, which controls each the Knicks and the Rangers, for greater than twenty years. Dolan additionally runs Madison Sq. Backyard, Sphere in Las Vegas and extra via his firms. The Knicks had been final valued at $6.6 billion by Forbes, which makes them the second-most beneficial franchise within the NBA.
