Juror's unauthorized Google search could imperil $7.5M award

ST. LOUIS -- A former St. Louis police officer's $7.5 million damage award in a sexual harassment case could be in jeopardy because of a juror's unauthorized Google search during deliberations.

Tanisha Ross-Paige won $300,000 in compensatory damages and $7.2 million in punitive damages from the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners in March after a jury found that she was a victim of both sexual harassment and retaliation.

The Missouri attorney general's office, which represents the police board, is appealing the verdict and seeking a new trial based on what state prosecutors call juror misconduct, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday.

A juror has acknowledged using his cellphone during deliberations to ask Google "Where do punitive damages go?" after the panel had agreed to award Ross-Paige compensatory damages. After reading the Wikipedia entry, juror Kevin Hink told his fellow jurors that Ross-Paige would receive some or all of the money.

State prosecutors also argue that jury instructions were flawed and that Ross-Paige did not present enough evidence to support her claims. They say that since the state-run Board of Police Commissioners relinquished police control to city hall last year, punitive damages are inappropriate because they "cannot punish or deter the alleged wrongdoer."

Ross-Paige filed suit in 2011, claiming her sergeant made repeated sexual overtures to his married subordinate. When she complained, the sergeant and a lieutenant assigned her to unfavorable shifts, evaluated her differently in performance reviews and denied time off for training that was given to others, the suit suggests.

Ross-Paige's original lawsuit claimed that her then-supervisor, Sgt. Steven Gori, created and distributed a mock "wanted" poster with her picture and comments about her body. The flier read, "Subject wanted for having the baddest body in the St. Louis area," and "Use extreme caution when approaching this subject. Approach this subject from behind for your own safety."

The lawsuit also claimed Gori asked the married Ross-Paige to sit on his lap, take off her bullet-resistant vest so that he could "see what [she is] working with," and invited her to skinny-dip in his hot tub.

Jeremy Hollingshead, one of Ross-Paige's lawyers, said Hink had "buyer's remorse."

"He thinks about it over the weekend and he realizes that this is a judgment that maybe is more than he wanted," Hollingshead said. "I'm not sure he really knew what he was getting into."

Hink declined a Post-Dispatch interview request but previously told Missouri Lawyers Weekly that while some jurors proposed punitive damages as high as $50 million, he felt that Ross-Paige deserved between $1 million and $1.5 million. Hink said he was "sick to my stomach" when the jury agreed to the much larger amount. He then alerted the attorney general's office to his Internet search in hopes of reducing the award. Attorney General Chris Koster's office declined to comment.

A June 9 hearing is scheduled to consider Hink's confession and determine if the online information improperly influenced the jury's decision. Jurors were instructed to turn over their cellphones and other electronic devices during deliberations and warned to "not conduct your own research or investigation into any issues in this case."