Garden Of Horrors

Madison Square Garden opened up on February 14th, 1968 at its current location of 4

Pennsylvania Plaza between 7th and 8th Avenue and 31st and 33rd Street. It is part of a Limited Partnership owned by Cablevision Corporation along Radio City Music Hall, and Rainbow Media. Cablevision bought Madison Square Garden, the building as well as the New York Rangers (hockey) and the New York Knicks (basketball) for 1.025 billion dollars in 1994. The current building is the fourth installment of Madison Square Garden and houses to over 320 events annually, including Knicks and Ranger games, concerts, Ringling Bros. Circus, and the Westminster Dog Show. Since purchasing Madison Square Garden, Cablevision has developed a cable network that shares it name with the facility where it resides from (MSG Network) and is the owners of one of the first women's basketball team, the New York Liberty. Through the years, Madison Square Garden has gone be many different monikers; "The World's Most Famous Arena", "The Garden" and "MSG" to name but a few. Recently, however, the Garden has become a place known for turmoil and creating a hostile environment. While fans are in the arena screaming and cheering for their favorite team or musician there appear to be cases of impropriety and charges of sexual harassment taken place in the executive offices just across the way. Next I will show two such cases that has happened in the last three years in the New York Rangers and New York Knicks offices at 2 Pennsylvania Plaza.

Case #1

Courtney Prince was captain of the Ranger City Skater, the ice skating cheerleaders of the New York Rangers. Their job is create enthusiasm in the crowd as well as help out with the different on ice events that take place during the intermissions of the hockey game. Ms. Prince was hired in 2002 and made captain in August 2003. A title she held till she was fired on January 22, 2004. What led to her firing is now still in dispute but Ms. Prince claims "when MSG learned she had reported the incident to her fellow skaters, MSG discharged her for "disparaging" MSG managers in that she had accused them of being "sexual predators". [] The incident is alleged to have happened on December 22, 2003, Prince was in attendance at a post-Ranger game party at a bar called Lobby. Prince was required to attend such events as a regular part of her job and her supervisor, Ryan Halkatt, instructed her to urge the other Skaters that it was in their best interest to attend such events. It was inferred that MSG advised Skaters that they were expected to attend such events as part of their regular job duties, though they were not paid for their time attending these events. At the event Ms. Prince and other Skaters had agreed to leave the bar and go to another location to have dinner. Upon leaving to go to the agreed location Ms. Prince got into a taxi with Jason Vogel, Deputy Director of NY Rangers Public Relations and Jason Diamos, New York Times Ranger beat reporter. Instead of heading to the agreed destination for dinner, Mr. Vogel and Mr. Diamos took Prince to Daddy-O's, a bar in the West Village. While at Daddy-O's, Vogel made sexual advances towards Prince, solicited her for sex, and told her that he wanted to have sex with other women on the Skaters team. He tried to kiss her and put his tongue down her throat. Both Vogel and the other man told Prince they wanted to go into the bathroom and have sex with her right then and there. Prince rebuffed them and made it clear that she was not interested. When Prince realized that the other Skaters were not coming she proceeded to leave. A few days later, Prince told some of the other Skaters what had happened and cautioned them not to fraternize with MSG management as they had been instructed not to with the Ranger players. Upon hearing this one of the other Skaters inquired if the person had been Jason Vogel because she had been warned by the his superior, John Rossasco, who is, the Director of Public Relations for the New York Rangers about Vogel's conduct. On January 22, 2004 Prince was called in before her supervisor Ryan Halkatt and the Vice President Jeannie Baumgartner, where Prince was accused of making disparaging remarks against MSG executives and accusing Halkatt as a "sexual predator". After the January 22 meeting Prince was never again called for work by MSG. She repeatedly asked MSG and Halkatt if she should report for work and was repeatedly told that she was not needed, despite the fact at the same time Halkatt solicited other Skaters to work at various games and events. After that MSG deleted Prince from all team material and literature. She was cut out of the team picture and all mention of her was removed from the team website.

In March 2004, Prince filed a charge of employment discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging sex discrimination and retaliation against Madison Square Garden. The EEOC conducted a thorough investigation, interviewed witnesses and obtained documents. On August 31, 2004 after a lengthy investigation the EEOC issued a Determination in which it found Probable Cause to believe that Prince's allegations in her charge were true. The EEOC duly issued to Prince a Notice of Right to Sue, and Prince has commenced this action. The suit is charged against Cablevision Systems Corporation (owners of the Garden), Jason Vogel, and Ryan Halkatt. She is charging the incident is only part of her claim stating also management forced Skaters to stuff their bras and take diet pills to look sexually luring. Garden management continually brought Skaters to local parties and would purchase alcohol for skaters who were underage.

In August The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommended in August that MSG have its employees undergo sexual harassment discrimination training and pay Prince $800,000 in damages. Currently the case is being processed through the system. The last filing was in April 2006, when the defendants motion to have the charges dismissed was denied on all counts. Justice Sweet, of the Southern District Court, has found that there is sufficient evidence to sustain Ms. Prince's allegations of hostile work environment. It is also has been encouraged by the courts to speak about a possible settlement. There is no court date set for the case. Jason Vogel and Ryan Halkatt are still employed at the Garden. Vogel is now the Vice President of Team Operations and Halkatt is the Director of Game Operations.

Case #2

You would hope a company would never have a case of sexual harassment but what do you say to a company that has two in less than three years. This one happened with