Following a failed appeal, Ohio’s Oberlin College is finally set to pay $36.6 million in damages the courts have awarded a local bakery for defamation.
In a Sept. 9 statement, Oberlin announced that it had “initiated” payments to Gibson’s Bakery, a 137-year-old, fifth-generation family business that was wrongfully accused of racial profiling after a shoplifting incident involving black students.
In April, an Ohio appeals court upheld a jury’s finding that the college, in its handling of student protests over the 2016 incident, committed libel, slander, and interference with business relationships against the bakery. On Aug. 30, the Ohio Supreme Court decided not to hear Oberlin’s final appeal, bringing an end to the long-running legal battle….