{"id":230335,"date":"2026-03-21T18:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230335\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:05:30","slug":"black-woman-has-a-multi-million-dollar-victory-in-discrimination-case-against-city-of-fresno-the-root","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230335\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Woman Has a Multi-Million Dollar Victory in Discrimination Case Against City of Fresno \u2013 The Root"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Black woman in Fresno, Calif. just got the last laugh<\/a> after a jury handed her a multi-million dollar victory stemming from workplace discrimination back in 2018. But while La-Kebbia \u201cKiki\u201d Wilson celebrated the court\u2019s ruling as a major personal win, it could also set a historic precedent for future workplace lawsuits involving racial discrimination.<\/p>\n

It all started in October 2019, when Wilson\u2013 who had been working at the city\u2019s code enforcement department\u2013 joined her co-worker, Charles Smith, to file a lawsuit against the city, according to The Fresno Bee<\/a>. The complaint alleged Wilson\u2019s supervisor repeatedly targeted the Black woman strictly because of her race, making her time working in the department a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re exposed. They made me seem like I was an angry Black woman stereotype,\u201d Wilson said after the jury\u2019s verdict. The complaint cited one interaction between the supervisor, Howard Lacy, and Smith, which confirmed Wilson\u2019s suspicions that she had been mistreated.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Lacy referred to Wilson as an \u201centitled N-word\u201d and even claimed Wilson used being Black to benefit her at her convenience. The lawsuit also claimed Lacy called the Black woman \u201clazy\u201d and a \u201cpiece of s**t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supervisor denied all wrongdoing when he was called to testify during the March trial. The testimony also revealed that an internal investigation was conducted and found that Lacy did not use the offensive language. Still, emotions were high in the court room as Wilson even shouting that the city officials present were \u201call f***ing liars\u201d at one point.<\/p>\n

During closing arguments, Wilson and Smith\u2019s attorney noted that Wilson was disciplined for using profanities, but until that point, Lacy had faced no repercussions. It took the jury only one day to return with a final verdict in favor of Wilson and Smith, holding the city liable for damages.<\/p>\n

Wilson was awarded $15.4 million. Smith received $400,000, adding he plans on \u201cstarting a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band,\u201d according to GV Wire.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe proved our case, and the city of Fresno never took this case seriously,\u201d Wilson\u2019s attorney said. \u201cThey fought it for over seven years in court, and we finally had our day in court and justice prevailed.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, not everyone was happy with Wilson\u2019s victory. Fresno Councilmember Mike Karbassi said he\u2019s not ruling out a possible appeal. \u201cIf this judgment is upheld, there will be tough decisions ahead if we\u2019re going to balance our budget,\u201d he said.<\/a> \u201cWhile I am very sensitive to the allegations, I also have a responsibility to protect the financial well-being of our current public employees who provide vital services to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Straight From \"The<\/p>\n

Sign up for our free daily newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Black woman in Fresno, Calif. just got the last laugh after a jury handed her a multi-million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-230335","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\/230335","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=230335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}