The company was sued in March 2010 by the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, which saw gender discrimination in a craigslist advertisement that offered “a great bachelor pad for any single man looking to hook up.”
Jim McCarthy, MVFHC president and CEO, said the nonprofit would move on.
“We obviously felt different about it,” McCarthy said Monday. “We accept the jury’s decision and we’ll continue doing our work.”
The Connor Group owns and manages about 1,900 apartments in greater Dayton.
The MVFHC filed for summary judgment on three ads, though U.S. Senior District Judge Walter H. Rice overruled it on July 27, stating there were genuine issues of fact that should be heard by a jury.
The MVFHC went to trial on only the “bachelor pad” ad. The trial started Aug. 2 and ended Friday.
A MVFHC staffer saw the bachelor pad ad on April 4, 2009. The MVFHC then filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which asked the Civil Rights Commission to investigate.
The commission found it “probable” that Connor had engaged in discriminatory practices, according to a November 2009 letter.
Rice’s July 27 decision notes that Connor had run ads designed to appeal to single men and single women, but “defendant also posted several ads tending to show that these apartment complexes are, in fact, family-friendly.”
Rice’s decision noted that marital status is not a protected class and that it is not common for single people to have custody of children.
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