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Oberlin College alumni and civil rights lawyers alike were stunned by the combined $44 million in damages awarded by a Lorain County jury to the owners of Gibson’s Bakery in a libel, slander and defamation suit.
The lawsuit, which named both the college and Meredith Raimondo, vice president and dean of students, stemmed from a Nov. 9, 2016, shoplifting incident and fight at the Oberlin bakery that involved three African-American Oberlin College students and Allyn D. Gibson, a white store clerk. The incident sparked immediate protests.
The complaint states that Raimondo and other Oberlin College representatives “handed out hundreds of copies of the flyer to Oberlin College faculty, staff, and students, the Oberlin community and media representatives stating that Gibson’s Bakery and its owners racially profiled (the students).”