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 enforced through 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 called this expansion beyond the park’s walls “deeply troubling” and promised to investigate further.)
Dolan says the biometric surveillance system is in place to prevent dangerous elements from entering his property – “If you’re a terrorist; [the list] But the NYPD did not share facial recognition technology or any other type of data with the Garden, he once told a local Fox affiliate. However, Garden added the photo of a New York police officer to many, many other photos in the facial recognition database, as Wired reported. “New Yorkers should be able to go to a game or a concert without their rights being violated,” New York Attorney General Letitia James 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 is hiring NYPD officers, through the city’s paid detail program, to bolster 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 audience is likely to be large and “demanding.”[e] “Active crowd control,” according to the lawsuit, so Garden officers thought they would need eight off-duty police officers to help. “Despite this determination,” the suit alleges, “there were only two officers actually present.” One of them was seven-year NYPD veteran John Przybyszewski.
At some point, an incident occurred near ringside. Rapper Lil Tjay appeared to spit in the face of a Garden security employee who appeared to be trying to stop 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.
