{"id":227492,"date":"2026-03-19T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227492\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:44:10","slug":"fresno-police-union-settles-1-95m-lawsuit-with-former-business-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/227492\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Police Union Settles $1.95M Lawsuit With Former Business Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former business manager with Fresno\u2019s police union has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit<\/a> that sought $1.95 million.<\/p>\n

Anna Pine sued the Fresno Police Officers Association<\/a> and its president, Jeff La Blue, in January, claiming harassment and retaliation. She said she lost her job because she refused sexual advances.<\/p>\n

La Blue is a sergeant with the Fresno Police Department assigned full-time to union duties.<\/p>\n

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

The FPOA and Brian Whelan<\/a>, attorney for Pine, issued a joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parties in the matter between Anna Pine and FPOA have reached a mutually agreed resolution. The dispute has been resolved to the satisfaction of the parties, and no further proceedings are anticipated. The resolution reflects a compromise and should not be construed as an admission of liability or wrongdoing by any party. Out of respect for the agreement and those involved, no further details will be provided. Plaintiff has agreed to dismiss with prejudice all claims asserted against the defendants FPOA and Jeff La Blue,\u201d the parties said.<\/p>\n

Neither side confirmed details of the settlement.\u00a0The court docket does not reflect documents indicating the case has been settled as of Thursday afternoon. A case management conference before Judge Maria G. Diaz was scheduled for June 30.<\/p>\n

Complaint Details<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit filed Jan. 22 in Fresno County Superior Court, La Blue engaged in repeated sexualized communications and conduct toward Pine, including explicit text messages, handwritten notes, verbal statements and physical advances that Pine rejected.<\/p>\n

When Pine attempted to disengage from the sexual dynamic, La Blue\u2019s demeanor toward her \u201cchanged materially,\u201d the lawsuit alleged.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit further claimed that La Blue made sexually disparaging remarks about Pine to other employees.<\/p>\n

La Blue used his foot to caress Pine\u2019s leg during a business meeting in what Pine described as an unwanted and \u201cunmistakably sexual\u201d advance, the lawsuit alleges. Pine reported the alleged conduct to human resources, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Allegation of Secret FPOA Recording System<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also claimed that FPOA maintained an office recording system that captured audio and video. The lawsuit said Pine accessed the recordings to determine whether La Blue had conversations about her with another employee.<\/p>\n

In one such conversation, La Blue allegedly used derogatory language to describe Pine. La Blue also threatened to fire Pine for what the lawsuit interpreted as Pine \u201casserting authority, enforcing workplace standards, and pushing back against misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Pine was terminated, the lawsuit says she was offered $63,956 in severance. The filing questions the legality of confidentiality provisions that would have required Pine to remain silent, citing\u00a0California\u2019s Silence No More Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also alleged La Blue spread false rumors that Pine had stolen money from the FPOA and engaged in financial wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Those accusations were untrue, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

The complaint listed seven causes of action, including hostile work environment, sex and gender discrimination, violation of the Silence No More Act, retaliation, wrongful termination, defamation and waiting time penalties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former business manager with Fresno\u2019s police union has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit that sought $1.95 million.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-227492","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\/227492","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=227492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}