Jury orders college to pay bakery $44M

CLEVELAND — An Ohio college ordered to pay $44 million in damages to the owners of a market who said the school ruined their business by branding them as racists said Friday the jury award is “not the final outcome.”

“We are disappointed in the jury’s decisions and the fragmentary and sometimes distorted public discussion of this case,” Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar wrote in a letter to faculty, students, parents and alumni. “But we respect the integrity of the jury, and we value our relationship with the town and region that are our home. We will learn from this lawsuit as we build a stronger relationship with our neighbors.”

Ambar’s letter said the verdicts are “just one step along the way of what may turn out to be a lengthy and complex legal process.”

The letter comes after a jury in Lorain County awarded David Gibson, son Allyn Gibson and Gibson’s Bakery, $33 million in punitive damages Thursday. That comes on top of an award of $11 million in compensatory damages.

In November 2016, students along with some Oberlin staff began gathering in front of Gibson’s Bakery to protest what they called store’s longtime racist policies after the arrest of three black students. A police report said one of the students was confronted by Allyn Gibson, who is white, after stealing wine. The confrontation turned physical and the students punched and kicked Gibson as he lay on the ground, the report said.

The student caught shoplifting was initially charged with robbery. All three students later pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and read statements in court saying Allyn Gibson’s actions that day weren’t racially motivated.