{"id":215715,"date":"2026-03-12T01:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215715\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T01:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:07:09","slug":"fresno-jury-awards-15-4-million-in-racial-discrimination-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215715\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Jury Awards $15.4 Million in Racial Discrimination Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

After deliberating for more than a day, an eight-person federal jury found the city of Fresno guilty of racial discrimination, awarding lead plaintiff La-Kebbia \u201cKiki\u201d Wilson, who is Black, $15 million in damages on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough these allegations preceded my administration, there is no question this verdict will have a significant financial impact on the city of Fresno.\u201d \u2014Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer<\/p>\n

The jury awarded the second plaintiff, Charles Smith, who is white, $400,000.<\/p>\n

Both formerly worked in the city\u2019s code enforcement division.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re exposed. They made me seem like I was an angry black woman stereotype,\u201d Wilson said after the verdict for the 10-day trial. \u201cI\u2019m so glad that the jury saw past that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Smith, he talked about \u201cstarting a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band\u201d with his award.<\/p>\n

Jury members declined to comment to GV Wire.<\/p>\n

Dyer\u2019s Reaction<\/p>\n

Following the verdict, which was read to the court at about 4:30 p.m., Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer issued a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank the jurors for their time and service,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cAlthough these allegations preceded my administration, there is no question this verdict will have a significant financial impact on the city of Fresno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he didn\u2019t defend the city in court, City of Fresno Attorney Andrew Janz told GV Wire: \u201cI\u2019d like to thank Judge (Kirk E.) Sherriff for hearing the matter and the jury for their service. I will not provide further comment as litigation may be ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court Testimony: Supervisor Used the \u2018N-Word\u2019 to Describe Wilson<\/p>\n

During the trial, Wilson said she was treated differently and suspected it was because of her race. Smith testified that a supervisor, Howard Lacy, used the \u201cN-word\u201d to describe Wilson in private conversation.<\/p>\n

In testimony, Wilson and Smith said they were harassed and retaliated against for complaining about the slur and other grievances.<\/p>\n

\"\"La-Kebbia \u201cKiki\u201d Wilson (right) consults with her attorney Gary Goyette during a break in testimony earlier in the trial. Wilson, a former code enforcement officer,\u00a0 was awarded $15 million after a federal jury upheld her allegations that the city of Fresno racially discriminated against her. (GV Wire\/David Taub\/File)
\nAttorney Fees<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs lawyers Kevin Schwin and Gary Goyette will file a separate motion for attorney fees. Those fees would include recovery for the Fresno City Employees Union, which funded the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Mandy Jeffcoach was the lead attorney for the city\u2019s defense team.<\/p>\n

Previous GV Wire coverage of the case is at this link<\/a> and this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After deliberating for more than a day, an eight-person federal jury found the city of Fresno guilty of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-215715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215715","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=215715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}