Eversole would tell his teams to bust the guys selling knockoff merchandise and “remove scalpers and drug dealers daily, in areas outside and around MSG properties, without back up, communication, or assistance from MSG venue security or NYPD paid detail,” Ingrasselino alleged in his lawsuit.
Ingrasselino’s former colleagues emphasize that the work could be dangerous, possibly illegal, and in no way a normal task for a private security force. Ingrasselino, among others, claimed that a former NYPD assistant chief now working for MSG was once attacked by scalpers and sent to the hospital. In his filing, Munn claimed that during his time “overseeing all security aspects” of several Dolan properties, he had been “ordered to do many things I felt were unsafe, unethical, and illegal, all at the direction” of Eversole.
Ingrasselino also alleges in his suit that he was ordered to embed “in the middle of pro-Palestine or anti-Israel protests” that happened to be passing a Dolan venue. Other security sources say that they were not ordered to insert themselves into any demonstrations. But they confirm that they were asked to observe protests that went anywhere near a Dolan venue. Given those venues’ central location, it happened a lot.
Some protests would get special scrutiny. When the Professional Bull Riders tour came to the Garden, animal rights activists would at times gather outside or in front of the MSG president’s apartment building. The leaders felt they were being singled out and surveilled.
Even people working for the state government found themselves in MSG’s sights.
In late 2022 and early 2023, when word about the lawyer bans began to spread and uproar over the face-recognition program was hitting a peak, the State Liquor Authority decided to look into it; per state law, according to the SLA, you’re not allowed to both serve booze and arbitrarily lock people out of your place. Dolan’s response may have been a touch over the top. He went on TV, held up a photograph of the then head of the liquor authority with the man’s phone number and email underneath, and told the audience to reach out to him and “tell him to stick to his knitting.”
Dolan later said in a statement announcing legal action against the state agency, “This gangster-like governmental organization has finally run up against an entity that won’t cower in the face of their outrageous abuses.” MSG’s lawyers called the SLA’s actions an “assault on not only MSG, but also all of its fans.”
The liquor authority tapped a former police captain named Charles Stravalle to handle its probe. Eversole’s subordinates were told to begin tailing Stravalle, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. “Trail a law enforcement officer in his duties? Absolutely not. Like, that’s a step too far,” the source says.
So MSG hired a private investigator, who wound up following Stravalle, even to his home in Queens, where the PI “camped out in front of his house with a camera,” according to an account in The New York Times. Stravalle called the cops, who eventually pulled MSG’s investigator over on the Long Island Expressway. The Garden’s lawyers complained that state officials were “harassing” the gumshoe. And besides, they added, hiring PIs was a “common and lawful practice.” (The state liquor authority is still considering the disciplinary case.)
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