NBA Slammed By NY Judge In Ex-Employee Retaliation Row
By Y. Peter Kang
A New York state judge chided the National Basketball Association for using photos demeaning to women in a rookie orientation course, allowing certain evidence for a former employee who claims he was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about sexual harassment of female co-workers.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings on April 12 granted the request
made by the plaintiff, former NBA security director Warren Glover, to
remove the evidence out from under a confidentiality agreement that the
parties reached in 2012.
The judge said that two photos used in a rookie player orientation slideshow,
one depicting a morbidly obese woman in bra and panties lying on top of
a much smaller man with the caption “Reason Not to Get Drunk,”
and another photo with Osama bin Laden’s head superimposed on women’s
bodies, can’t be kept confidential.
“The photographs ... both demean women and represent a culture of
sexual harassment and misogyny,” the judge wrote in a 17-page ruling.
“As such, these two photographs are similarly necessary to the prosecution
of plaintiff’s claims regarding a hostile work environment and retaliation.”
Judge Billings said there was no reason to keep the photos confidential
since they were already shown to first-year NBA players who aren’t
league employees.
“Nor does any evidence indicate that the identity of the obese woman
photographed is known,” she said. “Therefore, plaintiff is
entitled to disclose the photographs publicly as well.”
The judge also allowed Glover to use as evidence certain excerpts of depositions
of co-defendant Bernard Tolbert, the NBA’s former senior vice president
for security, and other nonparties that had previously been deemed confidential.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement that the photos are a decade
old and are related to conduct involving employees who no longer work
for the league.
“These claims from years ago are without merit and do not accurately
reflect the NBA’s inclusive and respectful culture, and we will
continue to vigorously defend against them,” he said.
An attorney for the plaintiffs said that they are satisfied with the judge’s decision. "We believe that the court’s ruling is a vindication of Mr. Glover's claim that they NBA has tolerated and condoned a culture of misogyny,” said Randolph M. McLaughlin of Newman Ferrara LLP.
Glover
filed the suit in 2011, accusing the NBA of firing him in retaliation for bringing his female
colleagues' complaints of sexual harassment and gender discrimination
to the attention of his supervisors.
Glover, a former lieutenant commander for the New York Police Department
who began working for the NBA in 2001, alleges that he was fired in July
2011 after being subjected to years of retaliatory discrimination for
relaying his female co-workers' concerns.
Glover is represented by Randolph M. McLaughlin and Debra S. Cohen of
Newman Ferrara LLP.
The NBA is represented by Evandro C. Gigante of
Proskauer Rose LLP.
The case is Warren Glover v. National Basketball Association Inc. et al.,
case number 114063/2011, in the Supreme Court for the State of New York,
County of New York.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
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