{"id":218565,"date":"2026-03-13T20:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:17:10","slug":"after-fresno-loses-15-4-million-racial-discrimination-verdict-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218565\/","title":{"rendered":"After Fresno Loses $15.4 Million Racial Discrimination Verdict, What’s Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city of Fresno is liable for $15.4 million in damages<\/a> in a discrimination case brought by two former city employees.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, an eight-member federal jury sided with La-Kebbia \u201cKiki\u201d Wilson and Charles Smith, awarding them $15 million and $400,000, respectively, for discrimination, harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n

Wilson, who is Black, claimed she was treated unfairly at work because of her race. Smith, who is white, testified that his supervisor in the code enforcement department, Howard Lacy, called Wilson an \u201centitled N\u2014-.\u201d When Smith told Wilson about the incident in July 2018, she had an emotional outburst in public at City Hall that involved profanity. She was disciplined for unprofessional conduct.<\/p>\n

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

A subsequent investigation could not confirm Lacy\u2019s use of the word. It did recommend that the city terminate Wilson for her outburst and unprofessional behavior in follow-up meetings with her superiors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at the huge number, but nobody looked at the huge price I paid to work at the city as a Black woman and being the only Black employee at that time. And that number still is not big enough for me because of the time I lost with my children and my family that I can never get back. My health, I can never get that back,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

She said she prayed during the trial for \u201cthe city to be exposed for who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city needs to know that there\u2019s going to be other La-Kebbia Wilsons in the world that come through there, who will stand up for themselves, will challenge them, because I raised my kids that way, and they should know to never get comfortable. They got comfortable being comfortable. That was the problem here,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Smith said \u201cjustice was done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to start a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band, tour the world, rock out,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Lacy still works for the city. Smith quit in 2018 for what he called a retaliatory re-assignment. The city fired Wilson in 2022, but those reasons were not discussed during the trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe proved our case, and the city of Fresno never took this case seriously. They fought it for over seven years in court, and we finally had our day in court, and justice prevailed,\u201d Kevin Schwin, attorney for Wilson and Smith, said.<\/p>\n

Does Insurance Cover?<\/p>\n

The city has not responded to questions about whether it has an insurance policy that may cover all or part of the verdict and how it might affect its deductible.<\/p>\n

Mayor Jerry Dyer told GV Wire on Wednesday, \u201cThere is no question this verdict will have a significant financial impact on the city of Fresno.\u201d His administration is currently preparing a budget that must be approved by the city council in June.<\/p>\n

Fresno City Council Vice President Nelson Esparza said the alleged slur happened before he joined the council in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city remains committed to reflecting the values of our community in the workplace and ensuring that our residents and employees are treated with the utmost respect,\u201d Esparza said.<\/p>\n

Arias: Accept Decision<\/p>\n

Councilmember Miguel Arias said the city should accept the jury\u2019s verdict. In a news release, he said he would oppose any effort to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conduct described in this case was wrong and reprehensible, and does not reflect the values of our city or the safe, respectful workplace every employee deserves,\u201d Arias said.<\/p>\n

Arias offered a public apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinuing to litigate would be fiscally irresponsible and the wrong decision for a city that prides itself on celebrating and protecting its rich diversity,\u201d Arias said.<\/p>\n

Analyst: Federal Court Should Have Been City Advantage<\/p>\n

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

\u201cYou have to get a unanimous jury to win. As a plaintiff, that\u2019s a higher burden. In state court, you only need nine out of 12 jurors to agree with you. To win in federal court you need all.\u201d \u2014 Attorney Roger Bonakdar<\/p>\n

Schwin anticipates the city will appeal. Multiple sources with knowledge \u2014 but not able to speak publicly because of the legal matter \u2014 said the City Attorney\u2019s Office is considering filing an appeal.<\/p>\n

Roger Bonakdar, a Fresno attorney not involved in the case, said the city has several avenues to choose from.<\/p>\n

Options include a motion to reduce the judgement because \u201cthe award actually reflects that these people were inflamed by passions as opposed to the evidence,\u201d Bonakdar said.<\/p>\n

The city could argue the award was based on punitive damages, something that is not allowed against a government entity, Bonakdar said.<\/p>\n

Pretrial motions such as what evidence was or was not allowed could be challenged as well.<\/p>\n

In a less likely scenario, the city could file a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict \u2014 asking for the judge to set aside the jury\u2019s decision. Bonakdar called such action rare.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudges give a lot of deference to a verdict from a jury. Jury verdicts are generally sacrosanct, absent rare circumstances such as misconduct,\u201d Bonakdar said.<\/p>\n

Wilson and Smith filed their case originally in state court in 2019. The city moved it to federal court. The trial started last month and lasted 10 days.<\/p>\n

Bonakdar said moving the case to federal court should have helped the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to get a unanimous jury to win. As a plaintiff, that\u2019s a higher burden. In state court, you only need nine out of 12 jurors to agree with you. To win in federal court you need all,\u201d Bonakdar said.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s next move will likely be discussed in closed session of the next city council meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were Ms. Wilson and her counsel, I wouldn\u2019t go spending any money quite yet,\u201d Bonakdar said.<\/p>\n

Other Allegations: Monkey Ears on Obama Picture<\/p>\n

Wilson and Schwin made other allegations that they could not bring up in trial. She claimed when she was laid off in 2013, it was not for economic reasons, but rather \u201cstrategic,\u201d to get rid of her.<\/p>\n

\u201c(She was) the only Black employee laid off out of those eight, but last to be brought back to work, even though she was first on the reinstatement list,\u201d Schwin said.<\/p>\n

Wilson also claimed that a picture of Barack Obama at her desk was desecrated with monkey ears.<\/p>\n

Gary Goyette, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said the city never took the case seriously. He recounted that a mediator told his clients to lower their expectations for a settlement. Wilson said the city did not want to settle. She said she did not have a number in mind that she would accept.<\/p>\n

Schwin said the highest offer from the city \u2014 through City Attorney Andrew Janz last May \u2014 was $300,000 for both.<\/p>\n

The attorneys will file a separate motion to recover fees, including the amount invested in the lawsuit by the Fresno City Employees Association \u2014 the union representing Wilson and Smith. Schwin did not have an immediate amount, but said it would be in the seven figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Fresno is liable for $15.4 million in damages in a discrimination case brought by two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-218565","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\/218565","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=218565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}