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.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated assault and battery claims Oakley made in a lawsuit brought against the team's owners after his Feb. 2017 removal from a game the Knicks lost to the LA Clippers.
A three-judge panel concluded a jury could decide whether it was improper for security guards to throw Oakley to the ground after Oakley, according to his court papers, slapped their hands away in self defense as he sought to watch the game.