While Western District Judge William Skretny (See Profile) clearly shared a jury’s disgust for the extreme racial harassment suffered by a black Buffalo-area steelworker, he said in a 49-page decision that the panel’s $24 million punitive damages award was just too much.

Skretny whittled the punitive award to $5 million, added another $437,323 in attorney fees and left intact the $1.3 million compensatory damages an eight-member jury awarded to Elijah Turley.