Tag: Oberlin College

Still Reeling from $36 Million Defamation Judgment, Oberlin Risks New Suit from Censored Coach

Just the News

A year after Oberlin College finally agreed to pay more than $36 million to family-owned Gibson’s Bakery under a defamation judgment — dragging out appeals until both father and son had died — the Ohio liberal arts school is facing new allegations of character assassination.

Administrators have tried to silence head women’s lacrosse coach Kim Russell about gender ideology’s threat to women’s sports since she questioned transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’s victory in the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle last year, she claims.

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Senator JD Vance Urges Ohio Colleges to Comply with Affirmative Action Ruling

Hannah Poling

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is urging Ivy League universities and two Ohio colleges to preserve admission records following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning affirmative action.

On June 29th the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that declaring racial preferences in college admissions is unconstitutional.

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Oberlin University Adds Risk Manager After Gibson’s Bakery and Other Lawsuits

Admin

Oberlin College’s record on lawsuits is so bad that it hired a new role this school year – a dedicated risk manager.

The college most famously paid out $36.6 million to local Gibson’s Bakery after its administrators were found complicit in damaging and false accusations of racism against the town staple. The damaging accusations of racism came after a bakery employee chased several black individuals who stole alcohol in November 2016 out of the store.

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Oberlin College Pays Out Millions After Launching Defamation Campaign Against Bakery

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Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, announced Thursday that it will pay a local bakery $36.59 million after a legal defamation battle.

The lawsuit began in 2016, when Allyn Gibson Jr. accused a black student of stealing a bottle of wine from Gibson’s Bakery, causing the college to launch a defamation campaign which included the vice president of the college calling the bakery racist. The Ohio Supreme Court declined the college’s appeal of a court’s previous judgment, causing the college to decide Thursday to pay the bakery.

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Ohio Supreme Court Rules for Gibson’s Bakery over Oberlin College

Bradley Vasoli

Ohio’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Gibson’s Bakery in its libel case against Oberlin College, declining to hear the school’s appeal and permitting the family-owned establishment to collect over $36 million in damages. 

The litigation against Oberlin and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo stemmed from uncorroborated accusations of racism that the Gibson family believes initially cost their store half its patronage. In June 2019, a Lorain County court ordered the school to pay the bakers $32 million. About $4.5 million in interest has accumulated since that ruling. 

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Commentary: Oberlin Learns a $31 Million Lesson for Falsely Accusing a Local Family Business of Racism

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On March 31, 2022, an Ohio Appeals Court upheld a lower court verdict against Oberlin College awarding  $31.2 million to a local bakery on the grounds that, among other things, the College and its Dean of Students defamed the business.

There has been much reporting about the incident that sparked the lawsuit against Oberlin and the potential negative impact of the court’s decision on the rights of students to engage in free speech and protest.

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Oberlin Loses Appeal After Defaming Local Bakery

Peter D'Abrosca

An appellate court this week upheld a lower court’s ruling that a local bakery was defamed by Oberlin College, a private liberal arts schools in Ohio.

In 2019, Oberlin was ordered to pay the maximum of $11 million in compensatory damages, $33 million in punitive damages, plus more than $6 million in attorneys fees to Gibson’s Bakery, a town staple that had served students at the school for generations, and even had a contract to sell some of its products to the school. 

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Gibson’s Bakery Cross-Appeal Brief Seeks Original $33 Million in Punitive Damages from Oberlin College

Zachery Schmidt

Gibson’s Bakery filed a cross-appeal brief Monday after Oberlin College filed its appeals brief last week seeking to overturn a trial court’s decision which made the college pay the bakery $25 million in damages.

The damages relate to Oberlin College making defamatory statements about the bakery after three minority students plead guilty to shoplifting. After these three students plead guilty, Oberlin College students not involved in the case accused Gibson’s Bakery of racial profiling, held protests outside the bakery, and said the store had “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination.”

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Democrat Judge Slashes Damages Oberlin College Must Pay to Gibson’s Bakery for ‘Racist’ Defamation

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by Ethan Cai   A Democrat judge nearly halved the damages awarded to a bakery that previously won a lawsuit against Oberlin College for defamation. After Oberlin College filed a motion on June 21 to cap damages given to the bakery, Judge John Miraldi, who ran as a Democrat in 2018, ruled on Thursday that the bakery will only receive $25 million from the school in punitive and compensatory damages, as opposed to the original $44 million, according to The Toledo Blade. The judge made the decision on the grounds that punitive damages must not exceed twice the sum of compensatory damages, according to Ohio law. Compensatory damages were determined to be around $11 million by the jury in this specific case. Attorneys for Gibson’s Bakery argued that there were multiple claims in the case, including intentional infliction of emotional distress and libel, so the damages should have been applicable to each claim separately. Lee Plakas, the attorney for Gibson’s bakery, had previously stated in an exclusive interview with Campus Reform that Oberlin was pushing “alternative facts” and that the college believed itself to be “above the law.” This new decision by the judge comes after a jury previously sided…

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Oberlin College Hit With Maximum Punitive Damages, Must Pay $33 Million to Gibson’s Bakery

Anthony Gockowski

  A jury ordered Oberlin College to pay $33 million in punitive damages Thursday to Gibson’s Bakery, an on-campus business that the school falsely accused of racial profiling. As The Ohio Star reported last week, the Gibson family was awarded $11 million in compensatory damages. State law caps punitive damages at twice the amount of compensatory damages awarded, meaning the figure will likely be reduced to $22 million, according to Legal Insurrection. At the end of the day, the Gibson family will walk away with at least $33 million in total damages ($11 million in compensatory, and $22 million in punitive after state caps). “Oberlin College tried to sacrifice a beloved fifth-generation bakery, its owners, and its employees at the altar of political correctness to appease the campus ‘social justice warfare’ mob,” said Legal Insurrection CEO and Cornell law professor William Jacobson. “The jury sent a clear message that the truth matters, and so do the reputations and lives of people targeted by false accusations, particularly when those false accusations are spread by powerful institutions.” As of June 30, 2018, Oberlin College reported that it had an endowment of $887.4 million. “Throughout the trial the Oberlin College defense was tone-deaf…

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Legal Expert Says Oberlin College’s Response to Verdict Could Hurt Them in Punitive Damages Hearing

Anthony Gockowski

  Oberlin College was ordered by a jury last week to pay $11 million in damages to a family bakery on campus that was falsely accused of racial profiling, but the monetary reward could triple during a punitive damages hearing scheduled for Tuesday. As The Ohio Star reported Sunday: The bakery, called Gibson’s Bakery, has operated on campus since 1885 and had a business relationship with the school until November 2017, when the bakery sued the school for numerous offenses, including libel, slander, and interference with business relationships. The conflict started in November 2016, the day after President Donald Trump’s election, after a black male student was stopped for shoplifting. He and two of his female peers eventually pleaded guilty to shoplifting and aggravated trespassing, but the damage to Gibson’s Bakery was already done. Students accused the business of racial profiling, organized protests outside of its storefront, and distributed flyers on campus that accused the bakery of having “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination.” On Friday, an Ohio jury ordered the college to pay $11 million in damages to the bakery for siding with the student protesters. In response to verdict, Oberlin College Vice President and General Counsel…

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Oberlin College Ordered to Pay $11 Million to Bakery it Wrongly Accused of Racism

Anthony Gockowski

  A jury has ordered Oberlin College to pay $11 million in damages to a family bakery on its campus that was falsely accused of racial profiling and faced months of student protests. The bakery, called Gibson’s Bakery, has operated on campus since 1885 and had a business relationship with the school until November 2017, when the bakery sued the school for numerous offenses, including libel, slander, and interference with business relationships. The conflict started in November 2016, the day after President Donald Trump’s election, after a black male student was stopped for shoplifting. He and two of his female peers eventually pleaded guilty to shoplifting and aggravated trespassing, but the damage to Gibson’s Bakery was already done. Students accused the business of racial profiling, organized protests outside of its storefront, and distributed flyers on campus that accused the bakery of having “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination.” On Friday, an Ohio jury ordered the college to pay $11 million in damages to the bakery for siding with the student protesters. “The verdict sends a strong message that colleges and universities cannot simply wind up and let loose student social justice warriors and then wash their hands of…

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