$33 million in damages to bakery shut down by Oberlin College

Ohio’s Oberlin College and its dean of students have been ordered to pay a total of $33 million in punitive damages, in a defamation case sparked by an act of shoplifting.

Three African-American Oberlin students attempted to shoplift wine from Gibson’s Bakery on Nov. 9, 2016, resulting in a scuffle with the store clerk and the students’ arrests. 

The result: two months of protests by Oberlin students, directly supported by the college and dean, according to the accusations placed by the Gibson family.

Protestors, including Dean Meredith Raimondo, accused the bakery of racial profiling for its role in the student shoplifters’ arrests. According to the complaint, fliers were handed out directly labeling the bakery as “a racist establishment”.

The college claimed its employees had played an impartial role in the protests, but the jury considered differently and found they had played an active role in defaming the business.