Around this time last year, Knicks legend Charles Oakley was involved in an ugly incident at Madison Square Garden during which he was forcibly removed from the arena by several security guards after engaging in a verbal altercation with embattled team owner James Dolan.
What followed has been a year-long legal imbroglio that is still only partially reaching a conclusion. Back in August, a court banned Oakley from MSG for a year, a ruling that didn’t seem to bother the former NBA enforcer very much.
But on Friday, a New York court dismissed all of the pending assault charges stemming from that incident, essentially clearing him of any wrongdoing in the matter.
Via Elizabeth Rosner of The New York Post:
Oakley’s misdemeanor assault charges — for a televised scuffle with two Madison Square Garden security guards — were dismissed by a Manhattan judge on Friday afternoon, in accordance with an August deal in which the charges would be erased and sealed provided he stays out of trouble for six months.
Oakley did not have to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday; the deal did not force him to admit any guilt.
Oakley, however, still has another six months before he can return to the Garden. In the meantime, he continues to await the outcome of a defamation suit he filed against Dolan in the fall regarding Dolan’s public suggestions after the initial incident that Oakley might be suffering from alcoholism and/or mental health issues.
So far, there’s been no further word on how that case is progressing or when we might expect a ruling.
