Ain’t that a bitch.
In a stunning close to a sensational trial, jurors knocked Knick coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden for sexually harassing and discriminating against a fired team executive – awarding her a whopping $11.6 million in punitive damages.
Anucha Browne Sanders made a slam dunk against the Garden with a jury verdict that forces her former employer to pay $6 million on charges of a hostile work environment and another $2.6 million for canning her in retaliation for her complaints against Thomas.
The jury socked Garden Chairman James Dolan with a $3 million bill for firing Sanders out of spite while an investigation into her sexual-harassment charges against Thomas was still under way.
Thomas wasn’t ordered to pay anything out of his pocket.
“She shouldn’t have been fired,” juror Sally Anne Foster said following the verdict.
Asked if the jury meant to send a message, Foster said, “Obviously, we did.”
The normally composed Sanders wept as Manhattan federal Judge Gerard Lynch took the verdict, dabbing her eyes with a tissue in her most emotional moment of the three-week trial.
Former vice president of marketing for the Knicks, Sanders accused Thomas of spewing curses at her for a year, calling her “bitch” and “ho,” and then suddenly changing tactics to profess his love and make sexual advances.
Thomas barely flinched as the jury foreman answered, “Yes,” the coach did intentionally discriminate against Sanders based on her sex. But jurors him off the hook on damages.
“What I did here, I did for every working woman in America,” Sanders, 44, said outside of court. “That includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning. Everyone who aspires to work in the corporate environment.
“I want to thank the jury for seeing through to the truth,” Sanders said before joining hands with her family and lawyers in a prayer circle.
The financial windfall is just the beginning for Sanders, who is also entitled to compensatory damages for lost wages and legal fees – a figure to be determined by the judge.
Thomas, who left the courthouse earlier in the day, defiantly declared his innocence.
“I want to say as loud as I possibly can, I am innocent. I am very innocent,” Thomas said. “I am extremely disappointed that the jury could not see the facts of the case. I will appeal.
“I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have,” the coach said moments before boarding a helicopter for Charleston, S.C., where the Knicks are in training camp.
The coach touched down at 2:15 p.m., before the jury had left the courthouse.
“We believe that the jury’s decision was incorrect and plan to vigorously appeal the verdict,” the Garden said in a statement. “We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place.
“The normal operations of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks will continue unabated, and we will have no further comment until the appeals process has concluded.”
The jurors reached their final verdict after an exhausting 2½ days of deliberations, during which they sent out notes indicating they were grappling over the severity of Thomas’ conduct.
During his testimony, Thomas admitted using the word “f- – -” at work, but denied ever directing insults at Sanders or making sexual advances.
The jurors announced they were unanimous on eight of the nine charges as of Monday night, but split 6-to-1 over whether the coach should pay punitive damages.
Yesterday, Judge Lynch allowed the jury to deliver a partial verdict, declaring a mistrial on the one charge.
The jury cleared Thomas of retaliation, finding he played no role in the Garden’s decision to fire Sanders in January 2006.
“It was a stressful time. I’m very relieved. I can say that,” said juror Anna Goldstein, of Manhattan.
“It was an exhausting ordeal,” said Foster, of Westchester.
The jurors found Sanders to be “believable,” according to Foster, who was convinced by the former executive’s documentation of complaints beginning in 2004. “A lot of people saw her distressed and distraught, and nothing was done for so long,” the juror said.
The verdict discredited Dolan’s testimony that he fired Sanders for being inept and for tampering with an investigation into her sexual-harassment claims. He had boasted in a taped deposition, “All decisions at the Garden I make on my own.”
Asked what the jury thought of Dolan, Foster said, “He should have consulted a lawyer. He should have taken more time to let the whole process work.”
She added that Garden executives “need sensitivity training.”
“I wouldn’t want one of my children working there because of all the language you have to listen to,” Foster said. “We don’t use those words in our house.”
Jurors also heard salacious testimony from Knick star Stephon Marbury and former team intern Kathleen Decker, 24, who admitted they had sex in the point guard’s truck after a party at a strip club.
“It’s very sad. She’s awfully young,” Foster said of Decker, who was 22 at the time of her encounter with Marbury and is now a full-time Garden staffer.
Sanders is currently an associate athletic director and senior woman administrator at SUNY Buffalo.
“All of us in the Division of Athletics are thrilled to know that Anucha has been vindicated and that both her and her family have wrapped up this very difficult ordeal,” the university said in a statement.