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An Ohio jury has ordered Oberlin College to pay $11 million to a bakery which said it was libeled and wrongfully accused of racially profiling students.
The case stems from the November 2016 arrests of three black Oberlin students at Gibson's Bakery and market near the college's campus in Oberlin, Ohio. One student, Jonathan Aladin, was accused of attempted robbery for allegedly trying to "steal wine or otherwise illegally obtain wine" from the bakery, according to a defamation lawsuit. He would eventually confess in a written statement to buying alcohol illegally. Two other suspects, Cecelia Whettston and Endia J. Lawrence, were arrested and accused of misdemeanor assault, court documents state.
After that, Oberlin staff members tried to discredit the family-owned bakery, the lawsuit says. Oberlin College staff -- including deans and professors -- and students engaged in demonstrations in front of Gibson's Bakery following the arrests of the three students, the lawsuit stated. The suit also said Oberlin Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and other college staff members "handed out hundreds of copies" of a flier to the community and the media stating that Gibson's Bakery and its owners racially profiled and discriminated against the three students.
A mass email sent by Oberlin College's Vice President and General Counsel to school alumni criticized the decision of the jury, despite the trial not being over. The email was sent ahead of a punitive damages hearing, which may triple the amount Oberlin College has to pay.
Also at Inside Higher Ed.
Update: Bakery suing Oberlin College for libel wins $33M in damages
Oberlin College hit with maximum PUNITIVE DAMAGES (capped at $22 million by law) in Gibson's Bakery case
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:10PM (1 child)
Informative - thank you.
I would like to point out one detail from the PDF. In the past x number of years, Gibson's has had either 50, or 60 people arrested for theft in the store. That figure is thrown out within the complaint. Of those roughly five dozen people arrested, the claim is that only six of those people were black.
Given those numbers - do you A. believe it B. disbelieve it C. accept that it may be accurate, but it is probably exaggerated, or D. other?
Oh, the rent situation? Isn't it the same in almost all college towns? Probably less noticeable in a real city, but any time you put a captive population into an area, they are going to affect real estate costs. Those effects seem to be less noticeable here, locally, where we only have three community college extensions. Closer to the main campuses, it can get crazy.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:38PM
The ~10% number does seem reasonable based on the racial makeup of the area in question, both college and town population. As for the total numbers, Gibson's is smack dab in the middle of town, and the nearest available source of booze for most students, so I'm not surprised that there have been a bunch of attempted thefts by idiots. As I said, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if somebody at the college overreacted big time based on a lot of unwarranted assumptions about who they were dealing with, although the $11 million number sounds excessive as well.
And yes, the rent thing is a pretty common feature of college towns. Hint to college kids and their parents from New York City, Boston, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and other high-rent areas: Check for nearby town rents and negotiate a bit before thinking you got a good deal. I know you're used to paying $3000 / month for a crappy studio, but that's over 5 times the going rent for larger 1-bedroom apartments in much of Ohio. Or if you're attending Oberlin, know that on-campus living is quite decent, and if you want a more independent situation you can consider moving into one of the very egalitarian cooperatives.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.