CLOAK AND STAGGER
MSG CEO Dolan sics private eye on Liquor Authority investigator
The bizarre and bitter battle between Madison Square Garden and the State Liquor Authority now includes a bit of cloak and dagger.
The arena hired a private eye to tail an SLA investigator, the latest and strangest twist in the ongoing fight where Garden boss James Dolan barred hundreds of attorneys working for firms engaged in litigation with the Garden from attending events at its venues.
“To try to intimidate the regulating agency through a private investigator, who of all things was arrested for carrying an illegal weapon, is outrageous,” said state Sen. Brad Holyman-Sigal (D-Manhattan). “It’s a mess of his own making.”
The Garden, in a blistering 48-page Manhattan Supreme Court filing on Wednesday, charged that the liquor authority’s investigator Charles Stravelle “behaved erratically” in the agency’s probe of the ban imposed by of MSG Entertainment CEO Dolan.
“The entire investigation was a farce,” the Garden alleged. “Charges against MSG were pre-ordained ... SLA intended to file charges from the very beginning, even before MSG had made any document production and before the SLA had spoken to any witnesses.”
The agency had threatened to suspend liquor sales at MSG as the fight continued to escalate, with Dolan responding in court papers last weekend. The SLA decision would also affect two other Dolan properties, the Beacon Theater and Radio City Music Hall.
“While others that have been subject to this harassment may have been forced into submission or silence, we are taking a stand,” Dolan said last weekend.
State liquor regulators opened the investigation to determine if Dolan’s ban on lawyers violates New York law requiring businesses with liquor licenses to admit the general public.
Stravalle, a retired police captain, told the New York Times that he noticed the tail and spotted the car’s driver parked outside his Queens home with a camera. He declined to comment Friday, citing an ongoing investigation.
The Garden defended its hiring of a licensed private investigator as “a common practice in defending against allegations — even if unfounded.” And a statement from MSG co-counsel Jim Walden stressed the Garden’s intent to keep fighting.
“MSG didn’t start this,” he said. “What is happening at the SLA is just improper — it is a bureaucracy out of control ... We will expose the SLA’s misconduct through the legal tools we have to defend MSG.”
The latest revelation came as the state senate sought to revoke the Garden’s annual $43 million property tax exemption.
“Why are we throwing $43 million away each year to line the pockets of executives at Madison Square Garden?” asked Holyman-Sigal. “The most important issue before us is the fact that Madison Square Garden is fleecing New York taxpayers and laughing all the way to the bank.”
State Attorney General Letitia James, marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, declined comment on the increasingly ugly spat: “As you know, they’re in the midst of litigation.”
Last week, Dolan ripped the SLA as a “gangster-like governmental organization” and vowed to battle against the agency’s threat to slam-dunk the arena’s liquor license.
Stravelle informed Long Island police about the Garden’s tail, confirmed in the MSG court filing.
The ongoing angst was launched when MSG blocked the lawyers from entering the building, using facial recognition technology to enforce its unprecedented policy.