Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College was an Ohio legal case concerning libel, tortious interference, and infliction of distress. The case ultimately involved questions about the responsibilities of universities during student protests.
The case began in 2016 with an incident of shoplifting by a black Oberlin College student at Gibson's Bakery and subsequent arrest of three black students for assaulting a staff member of Gibson's Bakery. Students, faculty members, and employees of the college protested against the bakery, alleging racism. The owners of the bakery sued the college, and Dean Meredith Raimondo in her individual capacity, for directly and indirectly supporting the protests, engaging in tortious interference of business, and for defaming the owners and employees. In 2019, a jury found in favor of Gibson's and awarded $44 million in compensatory and punitive damages (capped to $25 million due to state law), plus $6.5 million in legal fees.
Upon appeal, in 2022 the Ninth District Court of Appeals upheld the verdict 3–0. The college sought review by the Supreme Court of Ohio; the court declined jurisdiction of the appeal. The college then agreed to pay the judgment and interest, now totaling $36.59 million. In December 2022, Gibson's confirmed it had received the payment in full.
Background Gibson's Bakery is a fifth-generation family business established in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1885. Half of the city's 8,000 residents are students or employees—3,000 and 1,000 respectively—of Oberlin College. Local merchants are reportedly frequent targets of shoplifting by students of the school. According to police records, there were four robberies at Gibson's Bakery and 40 adults were arrested for shoplifting between 2011 and 2016, 33 of whom were college students. According to Gibson's, the bakery loses thousands of dollars to shoplifters every year. The owner of a nearby Ben Franklin store reported losing more than $10,000 a year to shoplifters. A college publication described shoplifting as a rite of passage.
2016 shoplifting incident On November 9, 2016, underage black Oberlin College student Jonathan Aladin attempted to purchase a bottle of wine using a fake identification card. Store clerk Allyn D. Gibson, a son and grandson of the owners, noticed that the student was concealing two other bottles of wine inside his jacket. According to the police report, Gibson told Aladin that he was contacting the police and pulled out his phone to take a photo of the student, which Aladin slapped away, striking Gibson's face in the process.
Aladin ran out of the store, and Gibson followed him across the street onto campus property where a scuffle broke out. When police arrived, Gibson was lying on the ground being punched and kicked by Aladin and two other female Oberlin students, friends of Aladin. The police report stated that Gibson sustained a swollen lip, several cuts, and other minor injuries. The police arrested the students, charging all three with assault and Aladin with robbery as well.
In August 2017, the three students pleaded guilty, stating that they believed that Gibson's actions were justified and were not racially motivated. Their plea deals carried no jail time in exchange for restitution, the public statement, and a promise of future good behavior.
Student protest and boycott
The day after the incident, faculty and hundreds of students gathered in a park across the street from Gibson's Bakery protesting what they saw as racial profiling and excessive use of force by Gibson toward Aladin. Jason Hawk, a reporter and editor with the Oberlin News-Tribune, testified that dean of students Meredith Raimondo was at the protest speaking to the crowd into a megaphone and discouraging photographers from taking photos of the crowd. He testified that she used her body to attempt to block him from taking photos, and handed him a flyer. The flyer read, "Don't Buy. This is a RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION." Counter protestors also gathered, calling the students "snowflakes".
The Oberlin Student Senate immediately passed a resolution saying that the bakery "has a history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment of students and residents alike", calling for all students to "immediately cease all support, financial and otherwise, of Gibson's" and calling upon Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov to publicly condemn the bakery. The Student Senate resolution was emailed to all Oberlin students and was publicly mounted in a display case at the school's student center, where it remained for a year.
Oberlin response On November 11, 2016, the day after the initial student protest, Oberlin College released a joint statement by President Marvin Krislov and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, saying they were "deeply troubled" by the events and would investigate "whether this is a pattern and not an isolated incident" of discrimination. The statement was emailed to all students and posted in The Oberlin Review, the school's newspaper.
Raimondo ordered its campus food provider to suspend its purchasing agreement with the bakery, with ratification by Krislov. The agreement was suspended for about two months, which the school said was an attempt to de-escalate the protests. During a meeting with Gibson's, Oberlin stated that it would consider reinstating the business relationship if the bakery agreed to not bring criminal charges against first-time shoplifters. According to the civil complaint filed by the bakery, Gibson's was worried that such a policy would cause an increase in future shoplifting.
At trial, lawyers for the Gibsons introduced emails and text messages showing that some senior Oberlin administrative staff were angry about the conviction of the three students and did not want the college to resolve the situation with Gibson's. One assistant dean in attendance of the students' trial texted Raimondo from the courthouse "I hope we rain fire and brimstone on that store." In an email, Oberlin's Vice President of Communications pushed back against claims that the college was hurting a "small business", calling the Gibson family a "massive (relative to the town) conglomerate" engaged in "predatory behavior toward most other local business. Fuck 'em." Oberlin's Special Assistant to the President responded, "100%!!!!!!!"
Retired Oberlin professor Roger Copeland was critical of the protests, writing a year after the protests began, "The time has come for the Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, on behalf of the College, to apologize to the Gibson family." Raimondo reacted to Copeland's statement in a private text message: "Fuck him. I'd say unleash the students if I wasn't convinced this needs to be put behind us."
An employee in the college's communications department sent an email to her supervisor saying that she found the protests "very disturbing", and that according to non-white friends she had spoken to, "this is not a race issue at all". This email was forwarded around by senior administrators, and one responded, "Doesn't change a damn thing for me." Another responded, "Gibson's is not clean on this ... The police report is bullshit, so obviously biased toward the Gibson's."
A former administrator said that Oberlin's recent drop in enrollment caused the school to be wary of disagreeing with its students. "A freshman from an East Coast big city might come to Oberlin and find there is little for a social justice warrior to do in a small town like this, so they get frustrated and make issues like this shoplifting thing bigger than it should be, and the school follows along."
Lawsuit and trial Civil complaint In November 2017, Gibson's Bakery filed a civil complaint against Oberlin and Raimondo for libel, slander, interference with business relationships, and interference with contracts in the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas. Gibson's argued that the college supported the protests that damaged its reputation and that the college unlawfully broke its contract with the bakery. In the complaint, the Gibson family alleged that some Oberlin College professors attended the demonstrations, joined in the chants with a bullhorn, and gave course credit to students who skipped class to attend the demonstrations. It also claimed Oberlin employees distributed boycott flyers and allowed them to be photocopied for free on school machines. Gibson's claimed that Oberlin faculty and representatives directly contributed to defaming the bakery; for example, prospective students were told during college tours that Gibson's was a "racist establishment" that "assaults students", and the Department of Africana Studies posted on Facebook that "their dislike of Black people is palpable" and "they profile Black students".
Oberlin responded to the complaint, saying Gibson committed "violent physical assault" against Aladin, and that the bakery was "attempting to profit from a divisive and polarizing event".
Trial The six-week jury trial began after more than a year of pre-trial proceedings since the original complaint. Three central issues were addressed at trial: whether the flyers distributed during the protests were defamatory; whether the Senate Resolution was defamatory; and whether Oberlin College bore responsibility for those defamatory statements. Statements made by students during the protests were not part of the trial.
After the shoplifting incident, local police investigated whether Gibson's had a history of racially motivated shoplifting reports. According to the probe, in a five year period, only six of the forty adults arrested for shoplifting at Gibson's were black. Both college and police records showed no previous accusations of racial profiling by Gibson's Bakery. A black former employee of the bakery testified that the racist allegations were not true. "In my life, I have been a marginalized person, so I know what it feels like to be called something that you know you're not. I could feel his pain. I knew where he was coming from." Clarence "Trey" James, a Black employee at Gibson's since 2013, testified that he had observed no racist treatment of customers or employees. James told The Oberlin Review, "When you steal from the store, it doesn't matter what color you are. You can be purple, blue, green; if you steal, you get caught, you get arrested."
Much of the trial was focused on the flyers distributed at the protests. Jason Hawk testified that Raimondo directly handed him a flyer at the protest. Evidence was shown that Oberlin's director of media relations emailed him to retract it, and after Hawk insisted it was Raimondo, she emailed back, "He is a liar." During trial, Raimondo admitted she gave him the flyer. Arguments were also made that Oberlin had at least indirectly assisted in the distribution of flyers. During the protest, Oberlin officials bought the protesting students pizza, and authorized the use of student funds for the purchase of winter gloves for students protesting in cold weather. Some professors gave credit to students who skipped class to attend the protests. Oberlin argued that this was not an endorsement of the protests; Gibson's argued that this sent a signal to the students that the college had picked a side.
For the Senate Resolution, the jury heard arguments that Oberlin had assisted its distribution, because it had given the student senate the ability to email the resolution to the entire student body, along with permanently displaying it in a display case within the student center. In the same building that Raimondo worked from, it could be seen by students and visitors for nearly a year, but Raimondo did not request it be removed until shortly after the lawsuit was filed.