“Stuff like this makes me wonder if we, in our social media enclave, underestimate how **** angry “normal people” get about these sorts of SJW attacks on regular folk.”

Thursday afternoon, a jury awarded the Gibson family $33 million in punitive damages in addition to the $11 million in compensatory damages they were awarded last week in the defamation suit against Oberlin College. That punitive award will be reduced, under state law, to $22 million (2x compensatory). So the total will be $33 million. The jury also awarded attorneys fees which have yet to be determined by the judge.

The judgment is a massive blow to Oberlin College who was accused of defaming the bakery and its owners over a shoplifting incident in 2016.

The skinny from Professor Jacobson

Oberlin College hit with maximum PUNITIVE DAMAGES (capped at $22 million by law) in Gibson’s Bakery case cc @michellemalkin https://t.co/ALcKJJvGTO — Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) June 13, 2019

As icing on the cake, the jury ruled that Oberlin College will have to pay Gibson Bakery’s legal fees in addition to $33 million in damages https://t.co/ALcKJJvGTO — Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) June 13, 2019

And more

BREAKING: Jury awards Gibson’s Bakery & owners maximum punitive damages, bringing total judgment against Oberlin College to $33 million. This historic case proves colleges can be held accountable for defamation of private individuals & businesses.https://t.co/0dJIIj0dlF — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

Congratulations to @LegInsurrection for their work on this case. Follow if you aren’t already. While other major mainstream outlets reported incident as a hate crime, there has been scant follow-up since it’s been revealed it was all a hoax. But, @LegInsurrection has been there. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

$33 million is an absolutely massive judgment against Oberlin that could have been avoided. Gibson family graciously gave Oberlin a chance to retract their defamation by issuing a letter to students reiterating Gibsons weren’t racist. Oberlin refused. Now they’re paying for it. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

Some important background on the case: police affirmed that Gibson’s had no history of racial profiling. In fact, of the more than 40 shoplifting cases at their store reported to law enforcement, only 6 suspects were African American. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

According to @LegInsurrection, Oberlin’s got more than $1 billion in assets, according to its tax forms. But the school’s attorneys said they were too cash-strapped to pay a potential judgment against them in the Gibson case. pic.twitter.com/G4DeCFC7jc — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

The Gibson family’s fortunes have changed drastically in just a week. As a result of the hate crime hoax, they had to lay off nearly all of their employees and the owners took no salary for two years. They were teetering on the verge of financial insolvency. Now, they won $33M. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

Oh, and another important detail: Oberlin will have to pay Allyn Gibson’s attorneys’ fees, which are likely pretty steep. Absolutely zero good news for Oberlin as far as this case is concerned. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

Be warned: some are going to portray this as a chilling crackdown on free speech in academia. It simply isn’t. There is no constitutional right to defame someone. — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

This is another crazy part. You have to ask Oberlin’s team what the heck they were thinking??? https://t.co/EGDFR8V5Ox — Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) June 13, 2019

The internet reacts

I’ve known the Gibson Family for over 25 years, and believe me, they are not Racists, not by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the turds at Oberlin College, which has never coexisted well with the town where it resides, learns from this. My fear is that they won’t. — 1023/1024thtoxicallymasculinedregofsociety (@JohnWiseman17) June 13, 2019

holy shit.

Stuff like this makes me wonder if we, in our social media enclave, underestimate how fucking angry “normal people” get about these sorts of SJW attacks on regular folk. — PoliMath (@politicalmath) June 13, 2019

of course, that’s a joke, Oberlin has almost a billion in their endowment.

Of course, donations may dry up a bit as alumni realize their money is going to pay settlements for asshole administrators instead of providing for students education — PoliMath (@politicalmath) June 13, 2019

Lol @ Oberlin college getting rekt. — RustyGears (@RustyGears3) June 13, 2019

Oberlin: “We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it.” Jury: “33 million in punitive damages. Learn from it.” Oberlin’s lawyer: “What I meant to say was…” — Never Informed To The FBI Hat (@NonWhiteHat) June 13, 2019

Retweeting this at @oberlin and @oberlinalumni just because I think it’s a little troubling that @oberlincollege blocks alums for expressing views critical of the school. https://t.co/gbfMvnJObs — William Gordon (@wwgordon) June 7, 2019

Too high you say?

I remember when Republicans were unified in their stand against excessive damage awards in civil cases, especially when no life or health was lost. The size of this penalty is ridiculous. Being called a bad name – even falsely – shouldn’t make anyone a millionaire. — Fava Bean (@Fava) June 13, 2019

A) The business isn’t lost. It has struggled, but it remains in business. B) Oberlin employees aren’t responsible for most of the damage. This penalty is too high. — Fava Bean (@Fava) June 13, 2019

Legal Insurrection has been covering the case since 2016 and is the only national outlet to have a reporter in the courtroom every day of the trial. For our extensive coverage of the case, see here.



