A federal jury has awarded nearly $3.2 million in damages to a Black former worker at a Tesla factory in the Bay Area that has been at the epicenter of racial discrimination allegations hanging over the automaker run by billionaire Elon Musk.
The verdict reached Monday marks the second time former Tesla employee Owen Diaz has prevailed in trials seeking to hold Tesla liable for allowing him to be subjected to racial epithets and other abuses during his brief tenure at the pioneering maker of electric vehicles.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick reduced that award to $15 million, prompting Diaz and his lawyers to seek a new trial rather than accept the lower amount. Even so, Organ is still vying for a third trial under a motion he filed last week before the jury reached its verdict. The request for a mistrial is based on assertions that Tesla's legal team prejudiced the jury by asking improper questions that raised doubts about Diaz's mental state and cast him as a sexual harasser.
Diaz, 53, alleged he was called the"n-word" more than 30 times, shown racist cartoons and told to"go back to Africa" during his roughly nine-month tenure at Tesla that ended in 2016.
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