Jury rules in favor of David Sabatini in sexual misconduct trial

A Suffolk County jury on Friday awarded $6 million in damages to fallen star scientist and former MIT professor David Sabatini, whose career imploded after he was accused by a much younger colleague of inappropriate sexual conduct in his Cambridge research lab.

The verdict was a sweeping rejection of the high-profile #MeToo claim of Kristin Knouse, a fellow scientist who said Sabatini subjected her to a coercive relationship and fostered a hostile, sexualized work environment in her lab at the famed Whitehead Institute.

The jury of seven women and six men ordered Knouse — who had filed her own suit against Sabatini — to pay the $6 million verdict, plus interest, finding that she had defamed him and damaged his ability to earn a living.