A jury has found Stanford University and Stanford Health Care liable for millions of dollars in damages to a longtime employee who sued the institution over its handling of racial harassment and discrimination against her a decade ago.
After a seven-week trial, the jury ordered the award to be $20 million, but the Alameda County Superior Court concluded last week the award should be reduced to $10 million. Half would be for defamation and past and future damages to the plaintiff, and the remaining $5 million would be in punitive damages. If the plaintiff agrees to the reduction, the court will order Stanford University and Stanford Health Care to pay out the sum.
The employee, patient testing technician Qiqiuia Young, alleged in a 100-page lawsuit filed in 2017 that problems began when her co-workers at Stanford Cancer Center dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan around Halloween. Photos of at least one person — who was wearing a pillowcase as a hood and was pretending to be a KKK member — were later shown to Young.
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