Ohio Supreme Court to hear arguments over Gibson's Bakery evidence

A month after referring it to mediation, the Ohio Supreme Court has sent a matter involving the unsealing of evidence in the Gibson's Bakery versus Oberlin College lawsuit back to its regular docket for a future decision. Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor made the announcement in a brief entry on the court's docket Wednesday. In mid-July, WEWS-TV in Cleveland and several other parties had asked the Ohio Supreme Court to force Lorain County Common Pleas Judge John Miraldi to release photos of Facebook posts by Allyn D. Gibson, the son and grandson of the owners of Gibson's Bakery, that were submitted as evidence in a 2019 civil trial but never introduced during the trial. Miraldi has 21 days to file a response to the TV station's complaint, according to O'Connor's ruling. The state's highest court had referred the matter to a mediator on July 22. A lawsuit filed by the Gibson family and the bakery against Oberlin College ended in June 2019 with a jury finding in favor of the Gibsons for more than $35 million in damages and attorney fees. The 9th District Court of Appeals in Akron is considering appeals by both the college and the Gibsons. In their legal filings, the news organizations argued that neither the Gibsons nor Oberlin College presented arguments to Miraldi that justified sealing an exhibit containing photos of Allyn D. Gibson's Facebook posts. Miraldi previously denied two requests, one by Oberlin College attorneys in September 2019 and one by WEWS, the Cleveland Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com and the Ohio Coalition for Open Government in April 2020, to unseal the evidence. WEWS appealed that decision to the 9th District Court of Appeals in June 2020 and was denied without a hearing. Read previous coverage of the Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College lawsuit in the digital version of this story at Chroniclet.com.