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Cal State Bakersfield made national headlines on Thursday when ESPN reported a story that has been percolating since September, when an assistant basketball coach was arrested on multiple felony charges including pimping and pandering and later child pornography.<\/p>\n
The arrest is just the flash point for the university and its athletics program. Multiple coaches from multiple sports programs and administrators are involved in a myriad of allegations and finger-pointing, internal investigations, dismissals and administrative leaves.<\/p>\n
Much of it is detailed in a lawsuit filed last October in Los Angeles County Superior Court by former athletics director Kyle Conder, with causes of action that include whistleblower retaliation, defamation and breach of contract.<\/p>\n
Fresno State, an innocent bystander, even got mentioned. Cal State Bakersfield just happened to be playing in the Fresno State Invitational at Margie Wright Diamond when two individuals who were later confirmed to be associated with Bakersfield softball player Violet Salazar accessed the bullpen area and threatened to kill one of the Roadrunners\u2019 assistant coaches, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
But the events leading to the arrest of Kevin Mays, the assistant coach, gained traction with an anonymous email tip that was sent to former Bakersfield basketball coach Rod Barnes in August. In the email, it was alleged that Mays was trafficking a woman in multiple states and had large caches of drugs, weapons and cash.<\/p>\n
That tip was reported to university officials and then to campus police and the Bakersfield Police Department, which eventually led to Mays\u2019 arrest. Mays has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which also include illegal possession of an assault weapon, possession of a controlled substance while armed and possession of marijuana for sale. His attorney declined to comment to ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen CSU Bakersfield received an anonymous report in August of 2025 that a member of our coaching staff was engaged in human trafficking, we took immediate action in notifying university police and the Bakersfield Police Department,\u201d the university said, in a statement to The Bee. \u201cBoth agencies launched investigations that resulted in an arrest within days. Shortly after, the university terminated the coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur immediate focus was on the safety of our student-athletes and ensuring the matter was handled appropriately by the proper authorities,\u201d it said. \u201cWe determined that the allegations of criminal activity did not involve a CSU Bakersfield student or any member of our campus community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The university took steps to address issues in its athletics department, creating a President\u2019s Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics to strengthen how it supports student-athletes and to oversee the athletics program. It also expanded its Title IX operations, adding staff and making operational improvements. It had no lead Title IX official at the time the allegations surfaced; the previous coordinator had left in January to take a similar position at the California State University chancellor\u2019s office., according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety and well-being of our students and all CSU Bakersfield community members remain our highest priority,\u201d the university said, in its statement. \u201cThis work is sustained every day by the dedication of our faculty, staff and students. Their commitment to one another and to our shared values strengthens the culture of care and accountability we strive to build at CSUB.\u201d<\/p>\n
The university and CSU board of trustees have asked the court to find four of the causes of action legally insufficient in a first amended complaint of the lawsuit. \u201cEach claim collapses under well-established California law; not due to factual disputes, but because plaintiff has ignored mandatory statutory prerequisites and relied on legal theories that are categorically unavailable against a public entity,\u201d CSU attorneys stated.<\/p>\n
But there obviously are issues within the university and its athletics department.<\/p>\n
The first incident mentioned in the lawsuit filed by the former athletics director involves Salazar, the softball player. Family members of the player, who has since transferred, made allegations in February that Salazar and possibly others had been subjected to misconduct by members of the coaching staff. According to the lawsuit, Conder, the athletics director, was told that assistant James Davenport had engaged in inappropriate and potentially criminal behavior with at least one player, including an incident where he allegedly grabbed a player in a sexual and aggressive manner and threatened her, possibly with a firearm.<\/p>\n
Conder contacted campus police, after receiving those allegations. Conder and other athletics administrators also communicated with two university officials, vice president of people and culture Lori Blodorn and dean of students Emily Poole-Callahan.<\/p>\n
The reports of possible criminal conduct were forwarded to external law enforcement, although at the time law enforcement did not find immediate corroboration, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
But Blodorn had Conder instruct Davenport to complete a workplace violence report over the incident at Fresno State and to the university\u2019s Title IX office.<\/p>\n
In his report to the Title IX office, Davenport, according to the lawsuit, indicated that he had reason to believe that Salazar was allegedly in a relationship with Mays and that they may be involved in allegedly illegal activities involving firearms and narcotics.<\/p>\n
University officials initiated an internal investigation into the program and in March coach Letty Olivarez and Davenport were put on paid administrative leave.<\/p>\n
During that investigation, university officials interviewed nearly two dozen people connected to the program, and according to the lawsuit multiple student-athletes and parents reported concerns that Mays and Salazar were engaging in illegal activities. One parent, according to the suit, reported their daughter had been in a car with Mays and Salazar during drug deals and possible attempts at human trafficking.<\/p>\n
According to the suit, \u201cThese reports suggested that Salazar\u2019s accusations against the softball coaches might have been a smokescreen to distract from Mays\u2019 wrongdoing. Davenport had informed plaintiff and other administrators that he suspected Mays and Salazar were involved in criminal conduct far more serious than the alleged coaching misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conder ensured these additional allegations about Mays were also communicated to higher administrators including Blodorn and Poole-Callahan and campus police, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
Davenport\u2019s contract expired at the end of May, and Olivarez remains on leave \u2014 her contract expires this year.<\/p>\n
Barnes, the Roadrunners\u2019 former basketball coach, stepped away from the program in September after 14 seasons, which included an NCAA Tournament bid in 2016. Conder, the former athletics director, was terminated in August 2025, but the university did not make it public until university president Vernon Harper sent out a campus email Sept. 8, four days after Mays was arrested, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Davenport, according to the ESPN report, also was the subject of a university investigation into illegal weapons transactions, threatening a student with a gun and having an inappropriate relationship with a student.<\/p>\n
Mays did not face any administrative action despite allegations in February and March, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
Basketball and softball are not the only troubled sports at Bakersfield. Eric Bugby, the Roadrunners\u2019 swimming coach, resigned in October 2025 just days before the start of the season and after just three months on the job. And, on Wednesday, women\u2019s basketball coach Ari Wideman reportedly was placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n
Conder, in his lawsuit, contends the university\u2019s post-termination posturing was to protect itself at his expense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clear impression to observers was that plaintiff\u2019s exit was directly tied to the unfolding scandal,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cLocal news media reported that the Athletics Director \u2018immediately stepped down after the arrest of Mays.\u2019 In effect, CSUB made plaintiff appear to be implicated in or responsible for the scandal, despite knowing that plaintiff himself had tried to address the very issues that led to it and that plaintiff had been wrongfully terminated weeks earlier on Aug. 18.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal State Bakersfield made national headlines on Thursday when ESPN reported a story that has been percolating since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[237,151,153,152,2454,4690,1846],"class_list":["post-209132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-arrest","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-basketball","tag-coach","tag-lawsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}