Madison Square Garden prevents the lawyer representing a New York police officer from being injured during a boxing match

His client is New York policeman who was injured during a private security party in Madison Square Garden. He filed a lawsuit against the park on behalf of the police officer.

Now John Scola, a lawyer known for representing local police officers, has been banned from the high-profile arena and several others owned by the famous James Dolan.

For years, Dolan publicly excluded entire law firms from his offices if a single lawyer was in any kind of legal dispute with the park; This ban will then be implemented by Dolan’s increasingly sophisticated facial recognition system. What’s not entirely clear is whether Madison Square Garden continues to develop its legal blacklist. A letter to Scola, dated April 30 and reviewed by WIRED, indicated the practice continued. “Any tickets to MSG venues are hereby cancelled,” the message read.

The ban also highlights the cracks in the multi-layered relationship between New York City’s public servants and its most famous square. As WIRED reported last month, MSG security forces functionally served as an unlicensed second surveillance force in downtown Manhattan — without formal permission from the New York Police Department. (New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani described this expansion beyond the park’s walls as “Deeply disturbingHe promised to conduct further investigations.)

Dolan says the biometric surveillance system is in place to prevent dangerous actors from entering his property — “If you were a terrorist, (the list) would say terrorist,” he once told a local Fox affiliate — but the NYPD did not share facial recognition or any other type of data with Jardin. However, The Garden added a photo of a New York police officer to several others in its facial recognition database, as WIRED reported. “New Yorkers should be able to go to a game or concert without having their rights violated,” New York Attorney General Letitia James L said Pablo Torre finds out Podcast In a statement. “My office is closely reviewing the latest reports of surveillance tactics at Madison Square Garden.”

On the other hand, the park hires NYPD officers through the city Paid details programTo strengthen its security forces. That’s what happened in February of 2025, when a lightweight boxing match was held at MSG’s then-named Hulu Theater. The crowd was likely to be large and “required active crowd control,” according to the lawsuit, so Garden officers thought they would need eight off-duty police officers to assist. “Despite this decision, there were only two officers actually present,” the lawsuit alleges. One of them was a seven-year NYPD veteran John Przybyszewski.

At some point, an incident occurred near ringside. It seemed like rapper Lil Tjay was too Spit in the face to a Garden security employee who appeared to be trying to prevent him from approaching the ring. Videos from the night show a chaotic scene. Lil Tjay’s bodyguards and his entourage joined the brawl. According to the lawsuit, Przybyszewski claims he was thrown to the ground and pinned under several people.

Przybyszewski claims that when he got up he was “in severe pain” and was sent to hospital in an ambulance. According to the lawsuit, “diagnostic imaging revealed significant injuries to the cervical and lumbar spine,” some of which were “permanent.”

Przybyszewski blamed the rapper and park officials. Lil Tjay and Madison Square Garden are suing. For counsel, he hired Scola, who often represents NYPD officers in disputes with their bosses and the city. Scola filed his lawsuit in February of this year. “Defendants made conscious operational decisions that placed Plaintiff directly in harm’s way. Those decisions caused his injury,” the lawsuit alleges.