A Franklin County jury has awarded $27 million to the family of a man who died after he was assaulted outside a Short North bar.
Gregory Coleman Jr., 37, died on Sept. 18, 2022. He was comatose for about two weeks after he was assaulted by two men working security at the Julep bar.
"It's about justice," Ed Hastie, the Coleman family's lawyer, said about the verdict on Friday.
The Coleman family filed suit in 2023 against the bar's ownership group, I Love High LLC, as well as Dwayne Cummings and Chrystian Foster, the two men found guilty of murder in Coleman's death. Both men are now serving life sentences.
Hastie said that the jury found that 80% of the fault lay with the bar's owner and 10% each lay with Cummings and Foster.
The suit said Coleman was getting food from a food stand in front of Julep on Sept. 5, 2022, and talking to people when Foster approached Coleman and asked him to leave the sidewalk.
"Foster and Coleman were having words, the video footage appears to show Defendant Cummings leaving a security stool situated next to the entrance," the suit said. "When Coleman put his hands down and backed off to remove himself from the potential altercation, Cummings sucker punched him directly in the face causing Coleman to crumble to the ground and smash his skull on the pavement."
The complaint also said that while Coleman unconscious and defenseless, Cummings and Foster took turns "mercilessly beating his face in."
Hastie said the family was vindicated at every step of the judicial process.
The trial started last Friday. The jury came back with a verdict late Thursday afternoon.
WOSU has contacted I Love High's lawyer Craig Pelini for a response.