Former MIT scientist wins $6 million in sexual misconduct suit by younger female colleague, says predator tag damaged career while it was a consensual relationship

Former MIT scientist David Sabatini’s name cleared of sexual misconduct allegations, court asks accuser to pay him $6 million plus interest.

A Boston court exonerated former MIT scientist David Sabatini, 58, of sexual misconduct allegations brought by former colleague Kristin Knouse and asked Knouse to pay Sabatini $6 million in damages. Sabatini lost his job after Knouse brought the allegations and claimed that Sabatini pressured her into a relationship starting in 2018 when they were both working at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, affiliated with MIT.Knouse said Sabatini created a sexualized and hostile environment in his laboratory. An internal investigation found Sabatini responsible for violating the institute’s policy governing workplace relationships. He was removed from his post.Sabatini maintained that the relationship was consensual and it ended after he began pursuing another woman. Sabatini filed a lawsuit against the Whitehead Institute, and Knouse also brought a lawsuit against him alleging that he had abused his position of power.

Knouse left in tears after verdict

Boston Globe reported the courtroom scenes after the verdict was given. The Suffolk County jury sided with Sabatini and Knouse was ordered to pay $6 million plus interest. Knouse who is currently an assistant professor of biology at MIT and a faculty member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, was left in tears. “It is disappointing that the jury’s verdict reflects none of this. It is sadly a marker of our times where it is still hard for women to be believed, and still hard to call powerful men to account,” Ellen Zucker, who represented Knouse in the case, told PEOPLE.“She was not the only one who came to court to speak about what they had observed and encountered with Dr. Sabatini. There were multiple women who took the stand and talked about very concerning experiences they had in the course of their training in the Sabatini lab,” Zucker said.Sabatini whose cancer research generated speculation that he could someday win a Nobel Prize said the allegations severely damaged his career. Sabatini’s attorney, Lisa Arrowood, called the verdict “a moment of sweet justice” for Sabatini, adding that her client’s life “was ruined” following Knouse’s claims. “After being branded a sexual harasser over five years ago, 13 Suffolk county jurors (seven women and six men) found that David Sabatini did not sexually harass Kristin Knouse and that she defamed him by calling him a sexual predator,” Arrowood told PEOPLE.