RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that a Black man with intellectual disabilities who was forced to work more than 100 hours a week without pay in a South Carolina restaurant is entitled to double the amount of restitution a judge originally ordered his former manager to pay.
A federal judge ordered Bobby Edwards to pay John Christopher Smith nearly $273,000 in restitution for unpaid wages and overtime over a five-year period.
But the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month the judge should have doubled that amount, to about $546,000, by including liquidated damages.
Edwards pleaded guilty to forced labor and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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