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Black
victims
of
U-Michigan
doc seek
equity
in
settlements
By
COREY
WILLIAMS
and
LARRY
LAGE
apnews.com
NOVI, MI
- Dwight
Hicks
left New
Jersey
as a
teenager,
seeking
to take
a step
toward
his NFL
dreams
by
playing
football
at the
University
of
Michigan.
Hicks
was
willing
to do
whatever
it took
to
compete
in the
1970s
and says
the
price
paid
included
being
sexually
assaulted
by the
late Dr.
Robert
Anderson
during
examinations.
Hicks, a
two-time
Super
Bowl
champion
with the
San
Francisco
49ers,
is among
dozens
of Black
former
University
of
Michigan
student-athletes
who are
asking
to be
treated
fairly
as the
university
settles
hundreds
of
lawsuits
expected
to cost
the
institution
millions
of
dollars.
They say
victims
should
receive
compensation
“based
on their
trauma
rather
than
based on
their
color.”
“I’m
here
today
speaking
for
people
that
could
not
speak
for
themselves,
that
feel
ashamed,
but it’s
about
not
being
silent,”
Hicks
said
Wednesday
following
a news
conference
at a
hotel in
the
Detroit
suburb
of Novi.
“You see
an
injustice,
you
speak
up. You
have
to.”
Most
personal
injury
cases
are
settled
out of
court
with the
amounts
often
based on
data
that
projects
lower
lifetime
earnings
for
Blacks,
Latinos
and
women
than
white
men,
said
Parker
Stinar,
an
attorney
with
Denver-based
Wahlberg,
Woodruff,
Nimmo &
Sloane
law
firm.
Hicks
was
joined
by
former
Michigan
wrestler
Airron
Richardson,
now a
doctor
in
Chicago,
to
discuss
their
experiences.
“I
still
love the
University
of
Michigan,”
said
Hicks,
who
captained
the
football
team in
1977. “I
hope the
University
of
Michigan
understands
and
acknowledges
what
happened
to so
many of
us. And
I would
hope
that
they
would
recognize
the
trauma
that was
bestowed
on us.”
Stinar
said
nearly
half of
the 750
men who
say they
were
sexually
abused
by
Anderson
are
Black.
“As
plaintiff
trial
lawyers,
we are
familiar
with the
prejudices
that
jurors
have
against
plaintiffs,
especially
plaintiffs
that are
minority
men,”
said
Stinar,
whose
firm
represents
more
than 100
clients
with
claims
against
Anderson.
“Historically,
Black
men
receive
the
lowest
verdict
or
settlement
awards,
especially
compared
to white
men and
women.”
Anderson
worked
at the
university
from the
mid-1960s
through
2003. He
died in
2008.
Campus
police
began
investigating
him in
2018
after a
former
student-athlete
wrote to
athletic
director
Warde
Manuel.
The
university
has
acknowledged
some
employees
were
aware of
accusations
against
Anderson
before
then.
The
university
has not
yet
shared
details
of any
settlement
process,
a
spokesman
said
Tuesday
in an
email.
Insurance
companies
and
courts
rely on
testimony
of
economic
experts
who use
wage
tables
to
calculate
damages,
according
to a
2018
report
by the
Lawyers’
Committee
for
Civil
Rights
Under
Law.
“How
Race,
Ethnicity,
and
Gender
Impact
Your
Life’s
Worth:
Discrimination
in Civil
Damage
Awards”
says the
data
typically
comes
from the
quarterly
population
survey
by the
U.S.
Bureau
of Labor
Statistics.
That
data
often is
based on
the
race,
ethnicity
and
gender
of the
person
filing
the
lawsuit,
and
since
Blacks,
Latinos
and
Hispanics
and
women of
all
races
typically
earn
less
than
white
men,
damages
awarded
often
are less
than
what
white
men
would
receive,
the
report
said.
“The
practice
of
forensic
economists
using
race,
gender
or
ethnicity
to
calculate
civil
damages
really
hurts
communities
of color
and
women
because
historically
they
have
been
paid
less
because
of
structural
and
systemic
discrimination
in the
workplace,”
said
Dariely
Rodriguez,
director
of the
Economic
Justice
Project
of the
Lawyers’
Committee
and the
report’s
co-author.
The
Associated
Press
left
messages
Tuesday
seeking
comment
from the
National
Association
of
Forensic
Economics.
Richardson,
who
joined
the
Wednesday
news
conference,
is not
yet part
of the
lawsuits
against
the
school.
He
arrived
as a
sophomore
in 1994
on the
Ann
Arbor
campus
and was
seen by
Anderson
for his
annual
physicals
and
occasionally
for
strep
throat.
“I
vividly
remember
being in
the exam
room,
him
looking
in my
throat,
him
giving
me
antibiotics,”
said
Richardson,
44. “But
he also
did a
genital
exam and
I
remember
seeing
posters
on the
exam
room
talking
about
how to
properly
perform
a
testicular
exam.”
Anderson
performed
the exam
under
the
guise of
checking
for
cancer,
said
Richardson,
who is
Black.
“I
feel
like I
was too
naïve,”
he said.
“I
believed
he was
helping
us. It
wasn’t
until
later
when I’m
in
medical
school
understanding
that’s
not part
of a
normal
exam.”
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