Genesee County Jury Awards the Griffeys $11.67 Million for Race Discrimination at Michigan Corrections

Lisa Griffey, who is Black, worked as a probation officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections in an office where, she testified, coworkers called her "mammy" and "the black one." Over roughly two years the comments and racial stereotypes continued. A supervisor once asked whether she wanted chitterlings on her pizza. After she complained, she was assigned a home visit with a parolee known to be racist, in violation of department policy.

When Lisa filed a formal harassment complaint, the department took no action, and her efforts to use the proper channels went nowhere. She sued in Genesee County Circuit Court in 2017. Her husband, Cedric Griffey, was a deputy warden with a 29-year career and the department's 2017 Corrections Professional Excellence Award. After the suit was filed, MDOC administrators forwarded a copy of Lisa's lawsuit to Cedric's supervisor. He then became the subject of internal investigations and discipline, came to believe his job was at risk, and retired.

Marko Law took the case to trial. Founder Jonathan Marko, the Detroit Bar Association's civil rights chair, tried it over about a month before a Genesee County jury. The Griffeys called dozens of witnesses, including physicians such as Dr. Shiener and Dr. Rubenfaer, who testified about the couple's mental suffering and its lasting nature. Forty-one witnesses testified in all. Marko's job was to connect Lisa's hostile work environment to the retaliation that ended Cedric's career.

On September 9, 2019, after about ten hours of deliberation, the jury found for both plaintiffs on their Michigan Civil Rights Act claims and awarded $11,670,128.33. News outlets reported the figure as roughly $11.3 to $11.4 million. It ranked among the largest employment-discrimination verdicts in Genesee County history.

The Department of Corrections appealed, asking the court to dismiss the claims or, failing that, to cut the damages through remittitur. On July 21, 2022, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed in a per curiam opinion. The panel held there was a reasonable basis in the evidence for the jury's awards and that the verdict was not so excessive that it could only have come from passion or prejudice. The damages stood in full.