19 MAR 05: ON HER SIDE
The big federal trial is over. The owner of a big Columbus TV station owes big damages. And I wonder if the plaintiffs passed their big box of tissues over to the defense lawyers, when it was over....
BLOG EXCLUSIVE, DAY 5: In a verdict announced Friday night after we left court to keep the Sabbath, Melissa Schultz Miller won two of her three pregnancy discrimination claims against Media General, the owners of WRBL. It was sort of like her pregnancy, really -- as you could say the final "trimester" of the case was put to rest.
Yes, you read correctly -- I left court before the verdict was announced to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Call me weird if you wish, but I put God above any court case. Besides, the witnesses in this federal trial never put their hands on a Bible to take the oath.
(There are other advantages to keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. For one thing, I wasn't able to watch Kansas get embarrassed in the basketball playoffs by Bucknell.)
Plaintiff's attorney Maxine Hardy tells your blog the federal jury ordered Media General to pay $100,000 in compensatory damages, and $2 million in punitive damages. I should have asked if the courtroom had a preview of "Thunder in the Valley" - with defense lawyers slamming their briefcases in disgust.
But please note because of the recently signed tort reform bill, the punitive damages for Melissa Schultz Miller cannot be more than $300,000. Media General might want to donate that remaining $1.7 million to the Republican lawmakers of their choice.
COMING SUNDAY: A full report on the end of this pregnancy discrimination trial.... as well as how my Sabbath-keeping "Church of God" group remembered the victims of the Wisconsin shooting spree....
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