Wingate tosses $107,100 judgment against JSU

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has thrown out a $107,100 judgment against Jackson State University.

On Friday, Wingate threw out the January 2015 jury award in favor of former JSU head trainer Fredrick Robinson. Wingate also denied Robinson's motion for attorney fees and expenses, and said JSU could recoup its costs from Robinson.

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Wingate's ruling comes after Robinson's attorney Jim Waide filed a motion last month to transfer the case to another judge, citing as grounds Wingate's delay in ruling on motions filed after the judgment.

Wingate refused to transfer the case and said he is ready to rule on pending motions.

"After reviewing the submissions of the parties and the relevant law, this court is not persuaded to transfer this cause to another United States District Court judge," Wingate wrote in his order. "The undersigned judge presided over all pretrial motions, the trial, post-trial motions and even efforts to settle the litigation. Just recently, this court heard in-court oral arguments on the last post-trial motions remaining in this lawsuit."

Waide had argued Robinson had to take out a high-interest loan. Waide said in court papers the judgment has already diminished in value because of the delay. "The diminishment of the value of the judgment will continue with further delay," Waide wrote.

Jackson State University opposed a transfer of the case from Wingate.

Last month, a panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, citing delays by Wingate in ruling on motions, ordered two cases reassigned. The petitions to remove the cases were made by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who called the slowness in Wingate's court an "unfortunate pattern."

Robinson's lawsuit said he was fired in May 2012 in retaliation for speaking with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was investigating a sexual harassment complaint against then-JSU Athletic Director Vivian Fuller by a female employee. A lawsuit filed by the employee was eventually thrown out. JSU argued Fuller fired Robinson for his work ethic and didn't like that he had referred to her as his "African Nubian queen" instead of using her proper title.

Wingate has said work on high-profile cases and mistakes by some former staffers led to a backlog of pending motions but that he has been working on clearing the backlog.

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.