My Sunday Feeling

I am not exactly Mister Trial Lawyer. But I knew a sexual harassment/ hostile workplace case I defended a couple of years ago was toast when I read the Report of Investigation (known in the parlance as an ROI). To make a really long story short, the subject of the investigation and the Plaintiff were co-workers. They fell in love. They got engaged. She broke it off. He couldn't deal with it and kept trying to get her back during working hours. He would corner her and try to hug her. Juvenile stuff like that. But it was offensive to Plaintiff and she told him to knock it off. Predictably, he did not.

She eventually filed a grievance. The heartsick, and overly aggressive, former paramour was called in by his supervisor who told him to leave the object of his affection alone. He was told that the office was an inappropriate place for that kind of activity. The following is a paraphrase of what he said. No lie.

" But she won't let me come over to her house anymore. The office is the only place I have a chance to talk to her and try to get her back."

I read that and knew in my heart of hearts that when a jury got its teeth into my guy we would get rung up.

Much as did the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden last week when a jury rang them up for 12 million or so over the termination of a black female exec named Anucha Browne Sanders. Browne Sanders alleged that the Knicks ran a hostile workplace. She alleged that symptomatic of this environment was the fact that she was referred to as a "bitch' by Head Coach and General Manager Isaiah Thomas. She also claimed that she was the subject of derogatory comments by guard Stephon Marbury, who if you believe Browne Sanders (and the jury sure did) is a misogynistic jerk who pretty much has the run of the place.

Anyway, I knew that the Knicks were toast when I saw a portion of Thomas's video deposition where he admitted that he didn't think calling a black woman a "bitch' was as bad when a black person did it. In other words, it's OK so long as a white guy doesn't do it. Thomas and Marbury are black.

Of course, the correct response would have been " Why no. It is never right to refer to someone as a bitch. I deny that I ever used such hurtful language in reference to anyone other than Ron Artest. And if I had known that Stephon was doing so or having sex with young office interns in a van, I would have given him quite a fierce talking-to."

But he didn't say that. Thomas and Marbury are black. Hence, the natural import of Zeke's testimony is that if they said it, it's not so bad. Connect the dots and hand over your employer's wallet, boys.

I am no expert in these matters but it seems to me that men most often get in trouble with women in the workplace a) trying to be funny and b) pridefully refusing to apologize for giving offense. They get in trouble when they hit on them too, but this doesn't happen as much as one might think. Having said that, people can and do form relationships on the job. I know some married couples that work together. Getting involved with a co-worker, while problematic (particularly if you or the office mate are married to other people), is not in and of itself a recipe for disaster.

It comes down to professionalism. A professional person takes people as he or she finds them, without regard to race or sex. It may be a condition of a woman's employment that she has to work with men. It is manifestly not a condition of her employment that she has to work with jerks. Not even if she works for a professional sports franchise where the jock mentality pervades.

Plaintiff's lawyers always urge juries to "send a message" when they render a verdict. Occasionally, this is an encoded plea for them to ignore the instructions and the evidence. But I ramble. In any event, I don't much believe that the legal system sends messages. But it does establish precedent. They are two different things after all.

But if the Browne Sanders case sends a "message" to the professional sports world it is this: It is one thing to reduce women to objects as a player. It is quite another thing to do so as an employer or co-worker. The former is merely wrong. The latter is illegal.

By the way, I settled my case. Browne Sanders asked for 6 million in hers. The jury came back with 12. I am willing to believe that the lawyers for the Knicks are not fools. I have to believe that they pretty much collectively searched their briefcases for a small handgun when Zeke made his interesting views on cultural anthropology known under oath. I have to think that they urged their client to settle the damn thing.

But there's only so much you can do when you represent idiots. It was widely suspected up until this latest fiasco that the Knicks are run by idiots but this was just based on some of the trades they have made. No more. Their idiocy is now a matter of the public record.

Talk about a bitch........