A former Knick intern took the stand in the sensational sexual-harassment trial that’s rocking Madison Square Garden and copped to having sex in a truck with hoops star Stephon Marbury – but denied she told a female executive she felt pressured.
“Stephon Marbury is parked outside the strip club. He asked me, ‘Are you going to get in the truck?’ and I got in the truck,” Kathleen Decker said in the explosive testimony, her voice quavering.
Asked if the sex was consensual, Decker told the packed courtroom, “Completely . . . I was in control.”
Decker contradicted claims by plaintiff Anucha Brown Sanders that the former intern was distraught over her encounter with Marbury – and told her boss she was drunk when she left the strip club and felt she “had to” have sex with the point guard because of “who he was.”
Decker didn’t waver in denying that she felt pressured, even when she was hit with a shocking Hallmark card containing a syrupy message to Sanders apologizing for the “mistake.”
The former intern said she had gone to the Mt. Vernon strip club with three fellow Knicks interns to celebrate her 22nd birthday in April 2005, never expecting to see anyone they knew.
“It was just something to do,” said Decker, who dressed for court in a tight black suit over a low-cut white shirt. “It was a spur of the moment thing.”
The foursome was surprised to encounter Marbury and his cousin Hassan Gonsalves inside, according to Decker.
Decker said she’d had a sexual relationship with Gonsalves and that he offered to give her a lift home, but when the rubber hit the road she went with star athlete Marbury.
“It was consensual. I agreed to get in the car. I wasn’t forced to do anything,” Decker testified.
Asked if she’d told anyone that Marbury raped her, the former intern said, “Never.”
Decker estimated the sordid tryst with Knicks point guard was brief, lasting no more than “45 minutes to an hour,” including the trip home from Westchester to St. John’s University.
In May 2005, just one month after her night with Marbury, Decker graduated from St. John’s University and was hired for a full-time staff position at Madison Square Garden and now works as a community-relations coordinator for Garden of Dreams.
The former intern’s encounter with Marbury came to light during the sensational sexual-harassment suit pitting the former Knicks executive against Knicks coach Isiah Thomas and the Garden in Manhattan federal court.
Sanders has made it part of her $10 million claim that the Garden did not do enough to address complaints of sexual harassment and abusive language by Thomas and others.
Decker nearly burst into tears as she said she had a difficult relationship with Sanders, who she said tried to block her from being hired and angrily confronted her on at least two occasions.
“I remember feeling so inferior and so unimportant,” Decker said.
The former intern said she never discussed having sex with the hoops star outside of her circle of friends until November of 2005, when Sanders called her into her office to confront her.
“She said, ‘Sit down on my couch,’ ” Decker said, adding that Sanders told her she could trust her because she’s “a mother.”
“It was very bizarre. Up until that point she had never been sincere,” Decker said. “I was very unnerved by the whole situation.”
“When I told her I had been there on my birthday, her initial reaction was, ‘Why are you there? Why do females go to see female strippers?’ ” Decker said. “I thought it was judgmental.”
Asked if she told Sanders that she had sex with Marbury outside the strip club, Decker said, “Yes . . . I told her what happened because I felt pressured to tell her.”
Decker said Sanders then ordered her to repeat the tale for her direct supervisor Karin Buchholz, now the vice president of community relations and fan development.
Asked by a lawyer for Sanders if she “regretted the episode,” Decker said, “I never said I regretted the episode.”
Decker later reluctantly acknowledged sending a sentimental card to Sanders, apologizing and thanking her for her support.
“I know that this week has been a tough one for all of us and I sincerely apologize for that,” Decker wrote.
“I know that I cannot change the poor decision(s) I’ve made in the past but I do know that I’ve learned from that mistake and will not let anything like that happen (ever) again,” the card continued. “I need to take control of the things I can and not worry about those I can’t.”
Asked why she wrote the note, Decker rolled her eyes and said she feared losing her job.
“Because I was scared of what could happen. Just my previous relationship with Anucha, I didn’t know if what I did outside of work could affect my work,” Decker said.
In other testimony, Decker’s former boss Buchholz said she’d always had a strong friendship with Sanders, but that all changed in late in November 2005 when the sexual-harassment case got under way.
Buchholz said Sanders would constantly call, prying for information and pressuring her to draft e-mails detailing incidents of harassment she’d heard about months earlier – and even forced her to attend a meeting with her lawyers.
“I thought, ‘I can’t continue to live like this.’ It just got to the point where I was fed up,” said Buchholz, adding that she didn’t want to be Sanders’ “mole.”
“I felt I was being put in uncomfortable situations,” Buchholz said. “I started to lose respect.”
Buchholz also described an earlier incident when she had taken family leave to be with her lesbian partner who was having a baby.
“Anucha pulled me to the side and said, ‘I know I’m not supposed to do this, but Steven Mills [the president of the Garden] has an issue with your lifestyle.”
“As your friend, I don’t think you should take the six weeks. Come back after four weeks,” Buchholz testified, quoting Sanders.