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Oberlin College Tag

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 28, 2019 61 Comments
Today was Day 10 of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. As so often happens in courtroom trials, choice of words used by witnesses becomes an issue. This is, after all, the art of truth-seeking that trial lawyers love to hang their hats on, proving that what was said can be true evidence of what that person accused was thinking. And, of course, common defense is “I didn’t mean it that way.”

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 26, 2019 36 Comments
Plaintiffs have rested their case, and survived a motion for a directed verdict, in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. This weekend has been the Oberlin College commencement weekend, and the school combines that with a reunion of alums. I attended various events, and talked to a number of alums about the recent lawsuits involving Gibson’s Bakery and Oberlin College. Here’s what I found.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 22, 2019 29 Comments
Yesterday concluded Day 8 of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. Today was a day off from witness testimony due a a prior commitment of the Judge. For those of you who have not been following along, here are our prior trial posts:

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 21, 2019 51 Comments
Today was Day 8 of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. In an emotional day of testimony, Gibson’s Bakery & Market owner David Gibson at one point looked at the jury and then across the room in the Ohio courtroom toward his 90-year-old father and his eyes welled up. “I realized very soon on how everything had been going in this, that my dad was going to pass away labeled as a racist.”

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 20, 2019 65 Comments
Today was Day 7 of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. The court addressed damage issues from a legal perspective earlier in the case, as described in our post Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College trial motions – What’s a reputation worth, and how do you prove it?

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 19, 2019 22 Comments
We have completed 6 days of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. The upcoming week will probably be key in terms of what evidence is being presented to the jury. Gibson’s Bakerywill be trying to show that the school did not merely try to “deescalate” the protests against Gibson's and accusations of racism, but “fanned the flames” and made the outcome far worse.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 14, 2019 63 Comments
Today was Day 3 of witness testimony in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College. The events giving rise to the lawsuit have been said to represent “the worst of identity politics.”  You can read about some of the background on this case here. Oberlin College Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo completed her testimony, which started yesterday. She is a defendant in the case, and the plaintiffs had called her as an “adverse witness.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2019 21 Comments
There has been near complete silence by national media regarding Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College, which we have covered since the initial protests through the current ongoing trial. The case is proceeding under the national media radar no more, as Tucker Carlson covered the case tonight. I was a guest on the program to discuss the implications of the case.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 09, 2019 41 Comments
In ways that are both irritating and interesting, the opening statements by the attorneys in Gibson Bros. v. Oberlin College shows how jurors may have a hard time defining the event in question accurately. The question is whether a fairly elite, liberal arts college (Oberlin College) defamed and libeled a small family run business (Gibson’s Bakery & Market) with racial overtones. All this in a time when the different political and cultural tribes were picking sides on just about everything, the day after Donald Trump's election.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 08, 2019 19 Comments
Given its complex nature, the jury selection for the Gibson Bros v. Oberlin College civil case trial will not be finished until Thursday, with the first witness not taking the stand until Friday. The intricacies showed up on Wednesday when potential jurors were questioned on their views of the rights of criminal victims, freedom of speech, religious forgiveness of those who steal, and the nature of how does one react when one’s reputation is damaged by social media bullies.

Posted by Daniel McGraw on May 07, 2019 10 Comments
With the lawsuit that decides whether a liberal arts college defamed a more than century-old small business with racist accusations getting officially underway Wednesday with jury selection, there was one major motion that had to be decided. No, it wasn’t whether Oberlin College has officially subscribed to a Maoist-crypto-neo-anarcho-communist state of education in recent years. It was about how does a court define how a dollar amount is determined if a jury arrives at the conclusion that the defendant did defame the plaintiff.
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