Chapotraphouse

This part stands out as especially horrifying:

Soon after the Garden began to relax its Covid restrictions in the spring of 2021, Nina Richards was regularly going to Knicks games there. According to one former MSG security staffer, she became a fixation for Eversole.

Eversole, a former senior director of global investigations at Oracle, instructed his deputies to compile “work-ups”—open source intelligence dossiers—on her. He made sure she was in the Garden's face-recognition system and ordered the Garden's security apparatus to focus on her, former MSG security staffer Donnie Ingrasselino later alleged in a lawsuit. Not because she posed any kind of danger at that moment. Because Richards was a transgender woman, and Eversole allegedly wanted to keep her “away from the players.”

Eversole targeted Richards “because of her gender identity,” Ingrasselino added in his suit. Employees who were forced to conduct the surveillance were often uncomfortable, since they believed it to be a clear act of profiling, according to the first former staffer. "She posed no threat," added a second former employee.

"She wasn't taking pictures in restricted areas. She wasn't trying to go places she shouldn't be,” the source continued. “This is just a very large transgender woman, being a fan, walking around.”

But Eversole's orders were explicit: keep watching. According to the lawsuit, he showed Richards' picture in several weekly meetings, misgendering her, and telling employees to watch out for “him or it or whatever it is.” Ingrasselino further contends in his court filing that “Eversole did not similarly limit access to others who socialized with athletes, including individuals who had extensive criminal histories and had the potential of posing a legitimate threat to MSG.”

On January 10, 2022, the Knicks played the San Antonio Spurs at the Garden. It was pride night. Richards was there, attending with a friend. An 18-page report prepared by Eversole's Threat Management Group and reviewed by WIRED shows just how closely she was being monitored.

07:10:20 // CAM 0241 // scans her ticket to section 102, Row 8, Seat 5

07:11:14 // CAM 1434 // goes up terrace escalators on level 3 to level 6 concourse

07:12:52 // CAM AC10 // hugs usher

Appendix A of the report has a screenshot of the embrace, with Richards circled in red.

08:08:58 // CAM 1093 // talking with F&B worker at the Draft Kings Bar

08:10:49 // CAM 0512 // pays for the drinks

08:31:19 // CAM 0485 // eating at a table

It goes on and on. At 8:48 pm, camera 0489 spots another quick hug with an MSG “membership experience executive” (there's a grainy photo in the report's Appendix N). Two minutes and two seconds later, the same camera captures her heading into the women's bathroom. Her exit is noted after precisely two minutes and five seconds.

Every MSG security source who was knowledgeable about this surveillance campaign used the word “excessive” or some synonym for this level of scrutiny. The report listed no reason for including these details on her movements. But when Richards and her guest on that January night began to move to some of the best seats in the house, the document's background turns red. It catalogs Richards talking to a security guard at 9:06 pm; that same guard walking over to section 1, row 1—right next to the Garden's famed “celebrity row” and Richards taking one of those seats 34 seconds after.

That night, Richards posted photos to her Instagram account. The images were included in the MSG security report. “What a great night,” she wrote in the captions. “I pray that this new year brings more peace, love and understanding to everyone.” In three of the photos, she's standing on the court, presenting a striking figure in a glittery jacket and boots. The post got 13,501 likes.

People who make it courtside often take such pictures, or are caught on camera during TV broadcasts. According to Ingrasselino's lawsuit, Eversole claimed that if an “openly” trans woman were noticed, it could “damage MSG's reputation.” The first former employee adds that they were told the very sight of Richards made the Garden brass uncomfortable.

Jesus H. Christ.

Fuck this asshole and fuck the Knicks.