Madison Square Garden Tracked, Then Banned, Trans Woman Just Because She's Trans

[RAMROD 117,048]

Her movements were tracked, over and over. When she sat down. When she ordered a drink. When she went to the bathroom. When she took the elevator. Nina Richards went to New York Knicks games quite a bit, and the security forces at Madison Square Garden used the arena's network of cameras to follow her.

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.

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.

“This was harassment. This was not OK,” the third former staffer said.
 

Richards used to have an active, vibrant presence online. Today, Richards has functionally erased herself from the internet. Her 44,000-follower Instagram account has been nuked. Richards didn’t respond to requests for comment about her treatment by the Garden’s staff, other than to ask that WIRED not use her real name.

Richards was banned from the Garden, right when the Knicks have been fielding their best teams in decades. “Mr. Eversole [f]abricated a stalking allegation to justify banning” her from the Garden, according to Ingrasselino's suit. Every knowledgeable MSG security source we spoke to about this felt the charge was a smear. But it worked.

If a plutocrat’s corporate enforcer can put Richards in that position, it opens any of us to being the subject of the next paranoid campaign. “You have all this work going into tracking someone who's not doing anything tangibly wrong,” the second ex-staffer says.

These Garden security sources—and several others—claim the pursuit of Richards was very much in character for Eversole, who brought an intensity to his role at the Garden that colleagues alternatively described as scary, cartoonish, ruthlessly effective, or a combination of all three.

 

https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-jim-dolan-surveillance-machine/

 

TL;DR: Madison Square Garden have face tracking surveillance system that they use to target attendees, including a season pass holder for New York Knicks team, who happen to also be a trans woman. They tracked her because they don't want her to be seen, cos it will "ruin" MSG image. She is later banned from setting foot at the venue as well.

[PornoDanceFight 1,991]

This is such an insane invasion of privacy, pettiness, and evil, my word...

[RAMROD 117,048]

I hope Gaga wills stop performing there on future tours

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 31,990]

19 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

I hope Gaga wills stop performing there on future tours

And I hope she makes a public statement about it

She’s been silent on a lot of political topics and some fans say it’s because she can’t be a defender of everything, which I can totally understand. But trans rights are her thing. Trans rights are her job.

[RAMROD 117,048]

1 minute ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

And I hope she makes a public statement about it

She’s been silent on a lot of political topics and some fans say it’s because she can’t be a defender of everything, which I can totally understand. But trans rights are her thing. Trans rights are her job.

Especially when one of her dancer is a trans woman. She would want make her collaborator to feel safe under her lead.

[LOVEDRUG 11,265]

As a Rangers fan, it sadly doesn't surprise me. The venue management own the Rangers, and James Dolan, the chairman of MSG Entertainment, is a friend of Trump's.

[Junko Enoshima 4,576]

I hate this world

[Lord Mayhem 3,428]

Welcome to Trump's America...The Land of the Free to be an Asshole 

[HotLikeMexico 6,548]

I had to read the title several times. I was so confused. 

[phantasmas 12,366]

So... this director guy admits that some athletes like trans women?   Players invite The Dolls over to their MANSIONS not the locker rooms, dummy! 

[TheLadyInRed 1,760]

On 4/17/2026 at 4:06 PM, RAMROD said:

Eversole claimed that if an “openly” trans woman were noticed, it could “damage MSG’s reputation.”

Good thing this story came to light, now it’s damaged for real

[JoeCool 1,007]

On 4/17/2026 at 4:55 PM, LOVEDRUG said:

As a Rangers fan, it sadly doesn't surprise me. The venue management own the Rangers, and James Dolan, the chairman of MSG Entertainment, is a friend of Trump's.

Spike Lee/Dolan is an example of why I find the whole political system a joke.  Spike is a huge probably most famous Knicks fan there is and also a huge Democrat.  Yet, think how many millions dollars he's put in the pockets of the Dolans who just put the money back into supporting Trump.  See what I'm trying to get at?

 

 

Anyway I use to really like the Knicks but kinda hope they lose tonight.  lol 

[gagzus 23,120]

Dont care it’s in her hometown or was her dream venue, she’s played it enough Gaga should just now outright avoid it in protest. Same goes for all liberal and pro-LGBT+ performers like Beyoncé, Taylor, Madonna and beyond

[50 Ft Queenie 640]

On 4/17/2026 at 4:46 PM, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

And I hope she makes a public statement about it

She’s been silent on a lot of political topics and some fans say it’s because she can’t be a defender of everything, which I can totally understand. But trans rights are her thing. Trans rights are her job.

On 4/17/2026 at 4:24 PM, RAMROD said:

I hope Gaga wills stop performing there on future tours

Sadly no to both. You can definitely forgot her speaking up. It hurts but it's the reality of Gaga now. She's just a PR people pleaser her new career aim

Damn I wish Rosalia wouldn't play there