Police Supporting Coffee Shop Bullied Off Campus at Boise State U. Awarded $4 Million in Settlement
“I’m thankful that the truth finally came out and grateful to the jury for their time and effort”
In the spring of 2021, a coffee shop called Big City Coffee was basically bullied off campus by leftists who protested when it became known that the business was supportive of law enforcement. Students actually pressured school administrators to close the shop.
We covered the controversy at the time.
Now the owner of the shop has been awarded $4 million in a settlement.
A coffee shop owner in Idaho was just awarded $4M after Boise State University forced them to close their location on campus. The University was bullied by leftwing activists to shut the coffee shop down because the owner supported the police and law enforcement.
NEVER CAVE TO… pic.twitter.com/yaDzXxDUG3
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 15, 2024
Boise Dev reports:
Big City wins case against Boise State administrators, awarded millions in damages
A jury delivered a unanimous verdict late Friday evening siding with now-closed Big City Coffee owner Sarah Jo Fendley for her lawsuit alleging two top Boise State University administrators violated her First Amendment rights.
After a nine-day jury trial, Fendley came out on top over Alicia Estey, Boise State’s chief financial and operating officer and vice president for finance and operations, and Boise State President Marlene Tromp’s former chief of staff and former Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Leslie Webb in her lawsuit alleging the pair removed Fendley and her business over her support of law enforcement in the fall of 2020.
The jury awarded Fendley a total of $3 million in damages for business losses, mental and emotional distress, personal humiliation and lost reputation. The jury also ruled Webb, now a University of Montana administrator, was liable for another $1 million in punitive damages.
The ruling is the latest in a case that first began in 2021 when Big City Coffee filed a $10 million tort claim against the university and several administrators. Fendley alleged that having to vacate her on-campus business following student upheaval in the wake of Minnesota resident George Floyd’s death violated the Idaho Consumer Protection Act and her constitutional rights. Students had questioned the coffee shop’s enthusiastic support of the Thin Blue Line and police officers at its downtown location and called for the closure of its Albertsons Library location.
This decision came after nine days of witness testimony and evidence over the course of three weeks, with Estey, Webb, Associate Vice President for Campus Services Nicole Nimmons, BSU President Marlene Tromp, Fendley’s former fiancé and retired BPD Sergeant Kevin Holtry and others took the stand for questioning from both sides.
The Washington Examiner has more on this:
While most of the claims were dismissed, the lawsuit against Estey and Webb was given the go-ahead, ending in Fendley’s victory on Friday.
“I’m thankful that the truth finally came out and grateful to the jury for their time and effort,” Fendley said after the ruling. “It’s been a long four years, and I’m just happy that it’s over.”
Webb and Estey, meanwhile, said they would appeal the decision to Idaho’s Supreme Court.
“We respectfully but strongly disagree with today’s verdict and plan to appeal,” they said. “We were honoring the First Amendment rights of all involved.”…
The trial climaxed in a seven-hour appearance on the witness stand by Nicole Nimmons, the associate vice president for campus services and the primary point of contact between Fendley and BSU.
You can watch part of the court proceedings in this video:
Big City Coffee of Boise, ID wins Multi-Million 1A victory against Boise State University for trampling on their pro police views. 👮💙
– BSU administrators owe Big City Coffee owner Sarah Fendley $4M after a jury ruled unanimously in favor of Fendley and awarded her damages.… pic.twitter.com/GR3q8juInL
— Farm Girl Carrie 👩🌾 (@FarmGirlCarrie) September 16, 2024
Like the now famous Oberlin College vs. Gibson’s Bakery story, this business owner had her life upended and almost ruined by student activists.
And like Gibson’s, she won in the end.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
At some point the normal people on campus will need to beat these freaks down. Force them to go back under their rocks.
Looks like people were trying to support her, not sure which coffee house that ws, campus or downtown, in video
Pretty huge coffee house
There needs to be a way to make the student agitators directly liable.
At minimum, an expulsion, then financial punishment.
If they expel them, then they won’t be paying tuition, and the college can’t pay the settlement. 😉
If the school was to financially go under, it would be a lesson to other campuses that have a free speech bias.
They have a $146M endowment they can pull it from.
What you are suggesting would be a violation of the students’ free speech rights. Hate speech is protected.
The university employees give up their free speech rights when acting in any official capacity. Government and its agents do not have the right of freedom of speech. Too many people do not understand this.
That takes a prize for garden-path headline.
“Police, Supporting Coffee Shop, Bullied Off Campus at Boise State U. Awarded $4 Million in Settlement”
good guys ~~1
bad guys ~~~0
This was a jury verdict, not a settlement. Boise State failed to settle and this was price of their intransigence.
Headline needs to end with “judgement”, not “settlement”. Settlement implies that the college bought her off; judgement tells us the jury spoke.
And, how about a hyphen to clarify “police supporting…” to give us “Police-supporting” to modify the business…. For a moment I thought that “police who supported coffee shop…” got the $4mil. Yes, nit-picking, but you get that sometimes from the son of a newspaper editor…. 🙂
Concur. On a blog purportedly centered around legal matters, you’d think the distinction between a settlement and a judgement would be clear.
I was confused from the get-go when the headline said settlement but the subhead included thanks to the jury. I’m not a lawyer, but based on my extensive experience as a watcher of Boston Legal and Better Call Saul, I was pretty sure that there’s no jury involved in a settlement. Confusing.
Eff the police.
OK, go for it. But next time you need help, call a hippy.
I think you should use your brain cells a little more before commenting.
A civilized society cannot exist without enforcement of the laws of the society. I.E., we need the police. Government must obey the law, otherwise, there is no law. There are far too many instances of police and government not obeying the law.
Eff the societal parasites that make having to have a police force necessary.
This decision is great, but until the people responsible for these decisions and a $4M+ outlay start getting FIRED, this will not change things. Leftists have no fear of losing other people’s money.
The judgement needed to include the folks at BSU responsible for violating the coffee shop’s owner’s 1st Amendment, personally making them pay as well.
“We were honoring the First Amendment rights of all involved.”… On what bizarre planet is that true?