Former MIT Professor Wins $6 Million After Sexual Misconduct Claims Damaged His Career; Accuser Joked About “#HeToo”

A Massachusetts jury has awarded former MIT biologist Dr. David Sabatini $6 million in a defamation case stemming from sexual misconduct allegations, setting up appeals from both sides as the dispute heads toward a higher court.

Dr. Kristin Knouse, the former colleague whose accusations upended Sabatini’s academic career in the United States, is contesting the October verdict. Her appeal has intensified a broader debate over the legal risks of reporting workplace misconduct and the role of campus disciplinary proceedings.

Knouse’s attorney, Ellen Zucker, said the $6 million award could discourage women from reporting misconduct. She argued that the verdict reflects a society still unwilling to believe women who challenge influential men.

David Sabatini listens to closing arguments in a pair of lawsuits on Oct. 14, 2026. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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“When someone can be sued simply for speaking out, it destroys the willingness of people to participate in an investigation,” Zucker told News Media. “If speaking up means facing a lawsuit, far fewer people will come forward.”

Sabatini’s attorneys rejected that characterization. His lawyer, Lisa G. Arrowood, told News Media that the verdict should not deter legitimate victims from reporting abuse.

“The jury’s verdict in this case should have no effect on women who have genuinely experienced harassment or abuse and choose to report it,” Arrowood said.

“Based on contemporaneous documents written by Dr. Knouse herself, the jury found that no harassment occurred and that her allegations of harassment and rape were false and defamatory. This verdict therefore has no bearing on people who report misconduct truthfully.”

The Maclaurin Buildings on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. (Getty Images)

Arrowood also said she expects the $6 million judgment to survive the appeal.

“This is her right,” Arrowood said. “But the judge was exceptionally careful throughout the case and frequently ruled in her favor on close questions. We believe her appeal will fail.”

Zucker, meanwhile, maintained that the verdicts would not hold and warned that imposing financial penalties on accusers could undermine future institutional investigations.

“We do not believe the verdicts will stand,” Zucker said. “Our client came to court and told the truth about her experiences with Sabatini, as did several other women. Investigators also found multiple violations of institutional policy.”

The coming appellate proceedings will revisit the events that ultimately produced the lawsuit.

Consensual relationship or coercion?

Knouse and Sabatini first met in 2012, when she was a doctoral student in the Harvard-MIT M.D./Ph.D. program and he served on her thesis committee. Court records show that they began a relationship in 2018, after Knouse became a Whitehead Fellow.

Sabatini said the relationship was consensual. Knouse contended that it was coerced and contributed to an inappropriate workplace environment. A Whitehead investigation in 2021 concluded that Sabatini had violated the institute’s policy governing workplace relationships.

Text messages introduced during the proceedings showed Knouse writing that she would “fixate on how I’m being held as a backup and competed against other women,” Boston 25 News reported.

In a message concerning a late-night visit to Sabatini’s hotel room during a work retreat, she wrote, “In hindsight, it was quite aggressive, #hetoo,” according to the outlet.

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Knouse also mounted what she called “Covert Operation Dethrone,” Boston 25 reported. In one message, she joked about buying a “Lambo” if she secured a settlement.

Kristin Knouse, left, sits behind the bar with Lexi Foman, assistant to retired Judge Nancy Gertner. A motions hearing, in the cases of David Sabatini vs. Whitehead Institute and Kristin Knouse and Knouse vs. Sabatini, is held in Suffolk Superior Court in front of Judge Hélène Kazanjian. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“Dr. Sabatini and his legal team are not criticizing the MeToo movement or women’s right to report harassment,” Arrowood said. “This case is different because the jury concluded that Dr. Knouse’s allegations were fabricated and intended to harm Dr. Sabatini.”

Following Knouse’s accusations, MIT administrators removed Sabatini from his tenured position. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, or HHMI, dismissed him, while the Whitehead Institute also forced him out.

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Arrowood said Sabatini’s legal team will pursue its own appeal, seeking to reverse an earlier ruling that dismissed the Whitehead Institute from the case.

MIT and HHMI were not named as defendants in the defamation lawsuit.

MIT declined to comment and directed News Media to a 2022 letter to staff. In that letter, issued when Sabatini resigned, the university said he had “behaved in ways incompatible with the responsibilities of faculty membership.”

HHMI did not respond to a request for comment.

Title IX investigations

The institutions based their decisions to remove Sabatini on internal Title IX investigations. Those reviews concluded that he had violated policy by engaging in an undisclosed romantic relationship with a junior researcher.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, campus tribunals typically apply a lower burden of proof and often give the accused little or no opportunity to cross-examine the accuser.

Arrowood argued that the institutions reached their conclusions before the evidence could be fully tested in a civil courtroom.

“This verdict should tell universities that they must gather and examine all relevant facts and documents from both sides before deciding to dismiss someone,” she said.

“In this case, investigators and the Whitehead Institute allowed one party and her attorneys to control which evidence they received and what could be presented to Dr. Sabatini. Had the institution and investigators seen the complete picture, we believe the result would have been different.”

Former MIT scientist David Sabatini, a biologist who once generated Nobel Prize buzz, is hoping for a comeback after he was abruptly ousted amid allegations of sexual harassment. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

In Suffolk County Superior Court, jurors rejected Knouse’s counterclaims alleging harassment and ordered her to pay Sabatini millions of dollars in damages for defamation.

Although Sabatini prevailed at trial, the prolonged dispute effectively dismantled his U.S. research operation. Billionaire activist Bill Ackman later financed a new laboratory for him in Prague, where Sabatini continues his cancer research.

“I lost everything. There was nothing left of my normal life,” Sabatini previously told Boston 25 News. “I’ve been dreaming about this moment for all this time, but often thinking I might not make it financially, emotionally or physically.”

The case will now proceed through the Massachusetts appellate courts. A formal briefing schedule has not yet been set.