Judge denies media request to make Allyn Gibson Facebook posts public

ELYRIA — A Lorain County judge has ruled against several media outlets seeking access to sealed evidence that never was used in the case of Gibson's Bakery versus Oberlin College. Advance Ohio — owner of the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com — WEWS-TV, and the Ohio Coalition for Open Government had requested Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John Miraldi release to the public Facebook posts allegedly belonging to Allyn D. Gibson. Miraldi denied the motion in a two-page ruling April 29. Miraldi already denied a similar motion by Oberlin College to unseal the exhibit in September, which he wrote in his most recent ruling contained "unauthenticated Facebook postings purportedly belonging to non-party Allyn D. Gibson." Miraldi wrote that Oberlin College "made no attempt to introduce the contents" of the Facebook posts in court "nor did they call or attempt to call non-party Allyn D. Gibson as a witness during trial." Citing Ohio Supreme Court Rule No. 45, which states that public access to case documents or information is allowed if the trial court finds by "clear and convincing evidence that the presumption of allowing public access is no longer outweighed by a higher interest," Miraldi wrote that "the continued restriction of public access is warranted." He also ruled that "there is no less-restrictive alternative to complete restriction." Allyn D. Gibson is the son of late Gibson's Bakery co-owner David Gibson, who died in November, and the grandson of co-owner Allyn W. "Grandpa" Gibson. He was the clerk on duty on Nov. 9, 2016 when an Oberlin College student tried to use a fake ID and steal wine from the store, and Allyn D. Gibson chased the man out before being assaulted by him and two other students. The arrest of the students led to two days of protests by their fellow students and supporters and, eventually, a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by the bakery and the Gibson family against Oberlin College over allegations the college libeled and damaged the business and its reputation. The Gibsons prevailed, and were awarded more than $35 million in damages and attorney fees. Allyn D. Gibson did not testify at the trial last year and was not a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by his father, grandfather and their business. In the ruling in September, Miraldi wrote that the material in the exhibit largely pre-dates the incidents leading to the lawsuit. He had previously allowed the posts to be introduced as character evidence regarding the younger Allyn Gibson, but again, the younger Gibson never testified. That attorneys for Oberlin College did not attempt to introduce them as evidence ensured they "waived any argument that these materials were admissible," attorneys for the Gibsons wrote prior to Miraldi's ruling in September.