A woke Ohio college now has to pay $4 million in interest on top of $36 million in damages it almost wrecked with false racial accusations against a family-run bakery.
According to The Chronicle, Gibson’s Bakery informed Oberlin College last month that it must pay the additional sum, which works out to about $4,000 per day for each of the 1,000 days that Oberlin College has failed to cough up.
In spite of the fact that the three black students eventually admitted shoplifting, Oberlin College, under the direction of one of its infamous ex-deans, Meredith Raimondo, lied that the bakery’s workers had discriminated against them in 2016.
That provoked a boycott and demonstrations, spearheaded by Raimondo carrying a bullhorn, that nearly destroyed Gibson’s, which in 2019 was successful in receiving a defamation settlement.
Due to a pending appeal against the decision against them, Oberlin has declined to make good on their obligation and requested a further delay in paying the Gibsons what they are owed.
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear that appeal after two lower courts rejected Oberlin’s attempts to avoid paying the Gibsons.
Oberlin must pay up, according to the Gibson family’s attorneys, because they submitted the incorrect papers to support their most recent delay strategy. For the time being, the legal impasse persists.
The Gibson family, who owns the 137-year-old bakery, was awarded damages after a jury determined that Oberlin’s deceit and participation in the boycott of the company caused them to endure excruciating anguish.
After the 2016 incident in which Oberlin College students and senior staff members called the family-owned business racist, the bakery in Oberlin, Ohio has struggled to exist and had to reduce its workforce by half earlier this year.
After the Gibsons reported three black shoplifters who had stolen wine and assaulted a store employee to the police, who were later found guilty, they did so.
Meredith Raimondo, the former dean of students at Oberlin College, was ordered by a court to pay $44 million in damages for defamation in 2019.
Later, it was reduced to $33 million, but the college has refused to pay that amount, and now they must pay about $4 million in interest charges.
According to The Chronicle, the judgment now totals more than $36 million, which includes the $31.6 million plus interest, or roughly $4,300 every day over the past 1,064 days.
Oberlin College requested in a court filing on Wednesday that the Ohio Supreme Court issue an order stopping the payment of the $36 million while the college challenges decisions made by two lower courts.
The Ohio Supreme Court has received appeals from both the college and the bakery. However, a hearing date for appeals has not been scheduled.
Attorneys for the bakery requested that the institution be ordered to pay the judgment in a court filing on May 27.
They said that the college had neglected to submit the required application to the 9th District Court of Appeals to stop the proceedings.
According to The Chronicle, Oberlin College obtained an appeal bond from Zurich American Insurance Co.
This guarantees that, should their appeals be denied, the judgment can be paid.
The Gibsons’reversed direction, filing a move with the trial court not against Oberlin, but against Zurich to collect under the surety bond to try to moot this appeal,’ according to Oberlin’s attorneys, after the appeal was decided and the college took the case to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Oberlin College requested a confirming stay from the court in its motion in order to halt the Gibsons’ attempts to collect on the bond that Zurich had issued.
The Ohio Supreme Court “would have the authority to extend the stay and continue the term of the bond to encompass Oberlin’s pending appeal,” the college claimed.
“Even if neither the trial court’s stay nor the terms of the bond contemplated that the stay would remain in effect pending the “exhaustion of all of the Defendants’ appeals,” the college wrote.
After losing an April court appeal, Oberlin has haughtily stated that it still won’t pay out.
It has also declined to apologise in spite of the fact that numerous college employees and numerous resources were used in the demonstrations and boycotts. Despite her despicable actions, Raimondo has managed to get a comfortable new college job in Georgia.
Since the college-related story has carried on for so long, two Gibson family seniors who were waiting for the money they are legally entitled to died with a blemish on their character.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s marching companion Allyn Gibson Sr. passed away in February of this year at the age of 93.
And David, one of his sons, passed away at the age of 65 from pancreatic cancer in November 2019. He disclosed that out of concern about swaying the jury during the defamation trial, he had agreed to refrain from bringing up the illness.
However, he stated in a statement before his passing that he thought Oberlin management was trying to “wait the family out” before making a payment in the hopes that his passing would relieve pressure on them.
The bakery was empty when DailyMail.com arrived on Tuesday morning, according to the family’s lawyer Lee Plakas, who also claimed that Oberlin faculty, staff, and students continue to engage in an unofficial boycott.
Plakas said that when Gibson’s makes the headlines, like in a report from yesterday that was published on DailyMail.com and then covered by Fox News, orders typically start to pour in.
This morning, the family received 100 inquiries from potential clients.
However, Plakas claims that as the narrative fades from people’s memories, sales inevitably declines, leaving the Gibsons scrambling to make ends meet.
Meredith Raimondo, a former vice president and dean of students at Oberlin, has not experienced such sorrow. Even though she led the campaign against Gibson’s and even demonstrated outside the store with a bullhorn and pamphlets accusing it of racial profiling, she was given permission to leave her position in 2021.
Raimondo is now allowed to cause chaos at Oglethorpe Liberal Arts College in Atlanta after threatening to send a woke mob after a professor who condemned the protests.
She accepted a position there as vice president of student affairs, and DailyMail.com has contacted her for comment regarding her bullying history.
The Gibsons’ lawyer, Lee Plakas, stated to DailyMail.com in April that the family is still suffering because of the college’s unfounded charges.
He noted how the bakery was forced to reduce its staff, moving from over a dozen workers to three to four total employees, saying that “business has suffered and the family is trying everything they possibly can to retain the bakery’s legacy.”
The Gibsons are ‘simply trying to hold on until the justice system forces the college to pay for the harm they created,’ according to Plakas, who claimed that the business has substantially slowed down and forced the Gibsons to curtail operations.
The lawyer said, “The Gibsons are naturally anxious.”
They express their disappointment at the college’s continued behavior in this manner despite its track record and a pile of proof suggesting they were mistaken.
Oberlin may appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court as well as the Ohio Supreme Court. Legal experts believe the renowned for being morally astute college may be using aggressive legal strategies to get the Gibsons to accept less in exchange for avoiding the stress of further legal disputes.
Oberlin College suspended its contract with Gibson’s, a long-time supplier to the school’s dining hall facilities, after the claims of racial profiling appeared, even though the bakery never received any complaints about its goods, prices, or professionalism.
According to Plakas, the college stopped utilizing the bakery as a food service supplier because it was concerned that serving Gibson’s products might cause “food tantrums” among its patrons.
Instead of serving as the moderators, the college “become the appeasers,” he claimed.
They terminated their long-standing contract with Gibson for food delivery because they wanted to satisfy the students rather than risk their temper tantrums, according to the source.
This college charges an annual tuition of over $70,000, so it seems to reason that if you send your kids there and pay the price, an adult should be present.
The adult will serve as a calming influence. But because these grownups were pouring gasoline on what ought to have been a spark, it quickly turned into an inferno.
Allyn and his son David Gibson, 65, both passed away while waiting for the college’s payout because of the drama that damaged their health.
The drama also damaged the family’s long-standing reputation in the Oberlin community.
Plakas stated that “the impact on the family is equally profound, if not more so.”
Allyn, also known as Grandpa Gibson, reportedly dedicated his life to upholding the honourable history his forefathers established when they founded the bakery in 1885 and to being a good neighbour.
According to Plakas, who cited David’s testimony during the trial against Oberlin College, “Grandpa Gibson told his son, David: “I’ve lived my life the right way and done all the right things and I’ve helped people, people of all colours and ethnic backgrounds, and at the end of my hard life, they’re trying to brand me and my family as a racist,”
“That particular trial time was poignant.” David Gibson struggled to deliver that testimony because he was aware of the harm and damage these untrue allegations had on Grandpa Gibson, who had devoted his life to upholding the truth, the lawyer continued.
Grandpa joined Martin Luther King in a march for justice and equality, therefore the college’s decision to sacrifice the great Gibson in order to placate their students had a significant negative effect on his health.
You cannot seek medical attention when you harm someone’s reputation; you must learn to live with it.
Despite his continuous fight with pancreatic illness, David, who passed away in November 2019, was dedicated to upholding the family’s reputation.
Although David Gibson was suffering from pancreatic cancer at the time of the trial and was having treatment for it, Plakas said that the family’s desire to uphold their reputation and preserve their family tradition was so great.
The lawyer claimed that despite being ill, David chose not to disclose his illness to the jury out of concern that they might feel sorry for him or his family.
According to Plakas, “David claimed the entire goal was a vindication of the family’s long-standing reputation and he wanted any determination to be based entirely on the facts and the history.”
He was worried that if the jury knew he was receiving cancer treatment, it may somehow affect their decision in his favour. In any case, he didn’t want the verdict to be coloured.
David, according to Plakas, thought that the “facts would speak for themselves” and that his family should be evaluated “on their conduct” and previous involvement with the neighborhood.
The 65-year-old was sure that the evidence presented to the jury would demonstrate that “the college helped promote the false claim that they had a long history of racism.”
Lorna Gibson was to carry on the struggle for their family’s bakery and legacy as David’s final request.
Plakas described the current proprietor of Gibson’s Bakery as ‘Lorna is working hard, she feels vulnerable, and somewhat alone without David and Grandpa.
Before he died, David told her that she would do everything in her power to keep the bakery open and prevent Oberlin College’s actions from ending the bakery’s long and illustrious history.
The lawyer claimed that Lorna feels as though she is keeping her pledge to her late husband by “working as much as humanely can.”
However, as Gibson’s Bakery battled to survive, Raimondo was still permitted to stay at the college despite her deceit and bullying until she resigned at the end of 2021 to pursue a job in Georgia.
When DailyMail.com asked for a statement, neither she nor her new employer, Oglethorpe College, promptly provided one.
Plakas underlined Oberlin College’s appeasement stance when asked about Raimondo’s employment.
Since this incident, the college has never served as the moderating or adult in the room, and they have never mentored the students. He argued that they never stated, “Let’s gather the facts and determine what actually transpired.”
Virtually every administrator who testified in the trial and provided certain statements for inclusion of evidence is no longer at Oberlin, the attorney did observe.
The day after Donald Trump was elected president, on November 9, 2016, Gibson’s Bakery was caught in a blaze.
The incident started when Jonathan Aladin, a black student at Oberlin, was discovered by Allyn Jr. trying to steal a bottle of wine from the bakery.
Witnesses claim that Allyn Jr. chased Aladin down the street and placed him in a chokehold before two of the student’s friends, Endia Lawrence and Cecelia Whetstone, interfered and a fight broke out.
The following day, students from Oberlin demonstrated outside Gibson’s, accusing the bakery of racial profiling against Aladin.
Later, Aladin, Lawrence, and Whetstone entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor counts of attempted theft and aggravated trespass; they acknowledged that Gibson’s acts were not racially motivated.
However, Oberlin had already decided to punish Gibson’s for the infraction depicted in the image before providing them with a fair due process, headed by Dean Raimondo and many students.
The bakery lost a crucial contract it had had with the school for years as a result of the student protests that were conducted outside the storefront.
Plakas claimed that this rhetoric is still used during tours today. “When the college sponsored new student tours, the student tour leaders – who are students paid by the college – go by and they tell the students and parents in the group, that Gibson’s is a racist establishment and we don’t go there,” Plakas said.
He said, “They told the new freshmen that the worst gaffe a freshmen can make is being seen visiting Gibson’s bakery.”
In the period leading up to the incident where it was charged with racism, the shop had also experienced a number of thefts.
Raimondo promoted the boycott, handed out flyers during the demonstrations, and offered students up to $100 in reimbursement for supplies used in the protests. He also accused the bakery of a lengthy history of racial profiling.
She even texted another dean to express her intention to rally yet another woke mob against a professor who had denounced Gibson’s bullying at Oberlin.
She inscribed, “F**k him.” If I didn’t believe that this ought to be put behind us, I would suggest to “unleash the students.”
For commercial loss, Gibson’s Bakery filed a lawsuit against Raimondo and Oberlin College in 2017.
Due in significant part to the prosecution’s case against Raimondo, the school was found guilty in 2019.
Gibson’s Bakery received a $40 million judgment against the institution, which was later reduced to $25 million and $6 million in legal costs.
This month, the punishment was affirmed despite an appeal by the college and Raimondo.
Oberlin College said that it continues to withhold payment from the family company it attempted to destabilize.
When contacted by DailyMail.com on Monday, the college released a terse statement that read: “Oberlin is clearly saddened that the appeals court affirmed the verdict in its ruling.”
We are carefully examining the Court’s ruling as we weigh our options and decide what to do next.
‘In the interim, we acknowledge that the concerns presented by this case have been difficult for everyone in the Oberlin community, not just the people involved in the litigation.
“We are still devoted to advancing the alliance between the College, the City of Oberlin and its citizens, and the downtown business district.”
We will keep up that crucial effort while maintaining a laser-like focus on our primary educational goal.
According to a study by The National Observer, the college was listed as one of the 20 most costly colleges in the country last year.
Despite the high cost, enrolment at the institution has only decreased by 4% over the previous five years.