Boston jury deliberates in competing lawsuits over scientist’s workplace conduct
A jury in Boston is deliberating in a civil dispute between molecular biologist David Sabatini and his former colleague and partner, Kristin Knouse. Their competing lawsuits centre on whether their relationship involved coercion and abuse of workplace power, as Knouse alleges, or whether Sabatini was targeted by a smear campaign after their relationship ended, as he claims. The case matters because allegations that damaged the career of a prominent scientist are now being tested in court.
Sabatini, 58, lost positions at the Whitehead Institute and MIT after an investigation found he had fostered “sexist and sexualized work discussions”; he resigned in 2021 and has not been criminally charged. Both acknowledge having sex after meeting at a 2018 conference, but differ on whether that encounter was consensual; they later had an on-and-off affair for about a year and a half. The three-week civil trial ended on Wednesday, with jurors sent to consider the claims.
- A jury is weighing competing civil claims by David Sabatini and Kristin Knouse.
- Knouse alleges coercion and workplace abuse; Sabatini says she pursued a smear campaign.
- Sabatini resigned from senior scientific roles after a 2021 investigation.
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David Sabatini is a molecular biologist who worked at the Whitehead Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both in the Boston area. He and Kristin Knouse, a scientist who worked with him, had a personal relationship after meeting at a conference in 2018.
Their relationship later ended, and they give different accounts of what happened and how it affected their work. Knouse says Sabatini used his workplace power coercively; he says he was targeted by a smear campaign.
Sabatini resigned from his positions in 2021 after an investigation found he had fostered sexist and sexualised work discussions. The civil case is examining their competing claims and the consequences for their careers; Sabatini has not been criminally charged.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Knouse’s case is that a senior scientist’s authority and influence over a colleague can make an apparently mutual relationship coercive, and that the circumstances of their first encounter and the workplace discussions found by the investigation support her account. On this view, the professional consequences for Sabatini followed serious concerns about conduct and power, rather than a campaign to punish him for a failed relationship.
The case against
Sabatini’s case is that the relationship was consensual and that, after it ended, allegations were used to damage his standing and career. He can argue that disputed accounts and the substantial professional costs he suffered make a civil jury’s scrutiny important, while the investigation’s findings about workplace discussions do not by themselves establish that the sexual relationship involved coercion.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Jury sent out to decide whether world-renowned molecular biologist is sex pest or victim of overzealous ex who wanted to ruin him”.