Former MIT Biologist Wins $6 Million Defamation Suit

A jury on Friday awarded David Sabatini, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment, $6 million in his defamation case against his primary accuser. 

The biologist sued Kristin Knouse after she accused him in 2021 of sexually grooming her while she was his graduate student mentee at the Whitehead Institute, the lab Sabatini ran for 24 years. 

MIT placed Sabatini on indefinite leave over sexual misconduct findings, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institution fired him for violating its sexual harassment and workplace conduct policies. He also resigned that same year from the Whitehead Institute after an investigation into his behavior concluded he had a past sexual relationship with Knouse and that he fostered a sexualized environment in his lab. Sabatini denied all the allegations.

He filed the defamation suit against Knouse as well as the Whitehead Institute and its director, Ruth Lehmann, in 2021, alleging he was the victim of a “sham” investigation. He said the relationship with Knouse was consensual and that she was out to “destroy” him after he started dating another woman. Knouse, currently an assistant professor of biology at MIT and a faculty member of its Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, said their relationship was coerced. 

The suit against the Whitehead Institute was eventually dropped.

The jury in Massachusetts’ Suffolk County Superior Court said Sabatini proved Knouse defamed him and that she interfered with his work. 

Knouse’s attorney, Ellen Zucker, said they would appeal the ruling. “The sad reality of our time is that society still has a difficult time believing women and appreciating the difficulty they encounter with men who too often control their fate,” Zucker told The New York Times. She said Knouse “came into court and told the truth.”

In a phone interview with The New York Times after the verdict, Sabatini said the decision was “surreal.”

“I’ve been dreaming about this moment for all this time, but often thinking I might not make it, financially, emotionally or physically,” he said.