Judge dismisses sexual assault and human trafficking lawsuit against Knicks chairman James Dolan [Video]

Warning: The following article contains descriptions of alleged graphic sexual assault.

According to ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, a judge on Tuesday night dismissed a federal lawsuit against New York Knicks and Rangers team owner James Dolan that accused him of both pressuring a woman into unwanted sex and setting up an encounter with the former Hollywood producer Having coordinated Harvey Weinstein.

Kellye Croft initially filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles in January. She alleged that Dolan repeatedly pressured her for sex in 2013 and 2014 and that Weinstein — who has been convicted of several other sex crimes in recent years and was a longtime friend of Dolan — sexually assaulted her at a Beverly Hills hotel. Croft also accused both men of sexual assault and unwanted touching and accused Dolan of sex trafficking.

The Oakley case stems from an incident in which the former New York Knicks player was ejected from Madison Square Garden in 2017. This case is still pending.

Croft said in her lawsuit that she was hired as a massage therapist for the Eagles band on their 2013 tour. Dolan’s band, JD & the Straight Shot, was an opening act on this tour. She said that Dolan pressured her to have sex several times during the tour and that she “felt obligated to indulge in sex with him.”

When the band had a residency at the Forum in Inglewood, California in January 2014, Croft rejoined the tour to continue working. She said she met Weinstein while waiting for an elevator at a Beverly Hills hotel this month that she said Dolan had set up, and that Weinstein sexually assaulted her later that night. Croft said she told Dolan about the attack and that he was “not at all surprised” because Weinstein was “a ‘troubled individual’ who had many ‘serious problems.’

Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted of various sex crimes. The allegations against him and the resulting convictions helped give rise to the larger #MeToo movement in the United States.

Croft’s sex trafficking lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. Her claims of sexual assault, sexual assault, and aiding and abetting sexual assault were dismissed without prejudice, allowing them to be refiled. Croft’s lawyers told ESPN they plan to appeal.

Dolan has long denied knowing about Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, although they were friends and acquaintances for years before the first allegations surfaced. Dolan was once a board member of one of Weinstein’s production companies and even released a song about it with his band in 2018. A lawsuit filed in 2017, which was later settled, alleged that several men on the board of Weinstein’s company were aware of his behavior and participated in the cover-up.

Dolan has led the Madison Square Garden Sports Company, which controls both the Knicks and Rangers, for more than two decades. Dolan also operates Madison Square Garden, Sphere in Las Vegas and more through his companies. The Knicks were most recently valued by Forbes at $6.6 billion, making them the second most valuable franchise in the NBA.