NY teams owner denies sending women to Weinstein

New York businessman James Dolan was included in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, alongside Harvey Weinstein, on claims that he trafficked a masseuse to the convicted former movie producer’s hotel room in 2014.

The lawsuit also claimed Dolan forced the masseuse plaintiff into having sex with him several times in 2013.

Dolan, who owns the NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers as chairman of the Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., denied the claims through his attorney, E. Danya Perry of Perry Law in New York.

“There is absolutely no merit to any of the allegations against Mr. Dolan,” Perry said in an email. “Bottom line, this is not a he said/she said matter and there is compelling evidence to back up our position. We look forward to proving that in court.”

Perry said the plaintiff’s counsel filed the suit as retaliation for losing multiple lawsuits against Dolan.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, a New York partner at Wigdor LLP, denied he has lost several lawsuits. He said in a statement, “Despite falsely denying knowledge of his good friend Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior prior to serving on the board of directors of The Weinstein Company, Dolan’s power and influence has remained intact. With the filing of today’s complaint, it is time to finally hold Dolan accountable for his outrageous conduct,”

Weinstein’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean of Bonjean Law Group PLLC in New York, also denied the allegations in a statement: “Mr. Weinstein vehemently denies these meritless allegations and looks forward to litigating these claims in a court of law where the truth will be revealed.”

The lawsuit claims Dolan knew of Weinstein’s behavior for years and facilitated the assault of the plaintiff and several other women who were not named or listed as additional plaintiffs. Kellye Croft v. James Dolan et al., (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 16, 2024). The case was not assigned a number as of Tuesday afternoon.

Wigdor was joined on the plaintiff’s team by firm partner Meredith A. Firetog, Girard Bengali APC founder Omar H. Bengali in Los Angeles, and New York attorneys Kevin Mintzer and Laura L. Koistinen.

In the complaint, the plaintiff, Kellye Croft, said she first met Dolan while working as a personal masseuse for the Eagles lead singer, Glenn Frey, during a tour that began in 2013. Dolan’s band, JD & The Straight Shot, performed as the Eagles’ opening act.

In November 2013, Dolan scheduled a massage with Croft in a Miami hotel room, her complaint claims. She said he dragged her to a couch and sexually assaulted her.

“Dolan was extremely assertive and pressured Ms. Croft into unwanted sexual intercourse with him,” the complaint stated. “Following this unwanted sexual contact, Ms. Croft was summoned to Dolan’s room multiple times during the remainder of that part of the tour.”

The complaint states Dolan then flew Croft to Los Angeles in January 2014 along with music producer Irving Azoff – whose companies are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

Croft said in the complaint she believed she was rejoining the Eagles’ tour to continue her work for Frey. However, she claims she was instead met by Weinstein in an elevator where he then led her to his hotel room and sexually assaulted her after she refused to give him a naked massage.

In a statement, Croft said she “suffered so profoundly because of what James Dolan and Harvey Weinstein did to me years ago, and it was not an easy decision to come forward and seek justice. But for me, to truly address my trauma, I need to seek accountability.”

Perry, Dolan’s counsel, said ithat Croft and Dolan “had a friendship,” and the references to Weinstein were “simply meant to inflame and appear to be plagiarized from prior cases against Mr. Weinstein.”

She added, “These claims reflect an act of retaliation by an attorney who has brought multiple cases against Mr. Dolan and has not won, and cannot win, a judgment against him. Mr. Dolan always believed Ms. Croft to be a good person and is surprised she would agree to these claims.”

Wigdor and Mintzer represented nine women they say are Weinstein victims and led the opposition against the Weinstein Company $17 million bankruptcy settlement in 2021, a news release stated.

In response to Perry’s statement, Wigdor said: “Our firm has not lost multiple cases to Dolan – that is a fabrication. Most egregious, however, is Dolan’s assertion that our client has made up being raped by Weinstein when she told Dolan at the time what had happened to her and when Dolan admitted to knowing about Weinstein’s predatory behavior. It seems as though Dolan still stands with Weinstein, a convicted felon.”

Weinstein, 71, is serving a concurrent 39-year sentence after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault by two women in New York in 2020 and a third in Los Angeles in 2022.