FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A Fresno trial attorney says Fresno Unified School District could face significantly higher legal costs as a defamation lawsuit involving Trustee Keshia Thomas moves closer to mediation.
Trial attorney and legal analyst Roger Bonakdar told FOX26 the nearly $370,000 Fresno Unified has spent so far represents only the cost of defending the case, not any potential damages the district could ultimately be ordered to pay.
“The amount of money that the district spent so far is just money gone,” Bonakdar said.
They need to be finding the exit. The expenses only go up from here, and they go up exponentially faster than they have so far.
The lawsuit centers on accusations Thomas made involving former Bullard High School coach Don Arax. Thomas had accused Arax of using a racial slur toward her son. More recently, Thomas withdrew the defense that the allegedly defamatory statements were true.
Bonakdar said the district’s existing legal bill could ultimately be only a fraction of its total financial exposure.
“The defense costs are going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the actual exposure the district faces,” he said.
He also pointed to district communications that repeated the allegations against Arax, arguing each republication could be relevant when determining damages. Bonakdar said repeated distribution of an allegedly defamatory statement can create additional grounds for damages in a defamation case.
As the case moves toward mediation, and potentially trial, Bonakdar said Fresno Unified could also face sharply rising defense costs for expert witnesses, trial preparation and additional legal work.
“I would estimate that the district’s legal expenses will grow by a multiple going through trial,” he said.
He also criticized how the district handled the allegations at the beginning of the dispute, saying he believes Fresno Unified failed to adequately assess its legal risk before the case escalated.
I think it’s abundantly clear that the district mismanaged their risk in this case from its inception,
he explained.
Bonakdar argued the district should have spent more time determining whether the underlying allegation was true and assessing how to limit its potential exposure.
Bonakdar emphasized that his assessment is his legal opinion based on the publicly known facts of the case.
Accountability Question
FOX26 asked Fresno Unified “When a complaint involving District conduct is brought directly to members of the Fresno Unified Board of Education, what specific process ensures that the complaint is actually reviewed and appropriately addressed rather than simply referred back to District administration—and what mechanism does the Board use to verify that the administration has investigated and resolved the complaint appropriately?”
The district responded that the process depends on the type of complaint and provided its existing complaint procedures, which you can seee here.
The district’s response did not identify a specific board level process for independently verifying that an investigation was completed or appropriately resolved.