{"id":58470,"date":"2025-11-18T12:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58470\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T12:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:54:19","slug":"city-of-bakersfield-may-challenge-700k-loss-in-fire-captain-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/58470\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Bakersfield may challenge $700K loss in fire captain lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 The city of Bakersfield may appeal the verdict in a lawsuit filed by a former Bakersfield fire captain that required the city to pay $700,000 for racism within its fire department.<\/p>\n

In October, former Bakersfield Fire Department Captain Quincy Sloan won $700,000 in a lawsuit he filed against the city alleging racial and religious discrimination<\/a> that prevented him from being promoted to battalion chief.<\/p>\n

Sloan is African American and a Jehovah\u2019s Witness.<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\t\u2018I felt vindicated\u2019: Former Bakersfield fire captain breaks silence on lawsuit\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bakersfield City Attorney\u2019s Office is asking the city council to approve an amendment in the city\u2019s agreement with Clifford & Brown, the office that represented the city in the lawsuit, to add compensation.<\/p>\n

The additional $750,000 could bring the the city\u2019s total for legal representation in this case up to $1,100,000, according to the agenda.<\/p>\n

The added amount would pay for the trial preparation, the two months of trial and post-trial motions. It would also pay for a \u201cpotential appeal,\u201d the agenda said.<\/p>\n

During the Bakersfield City Council Nov. 5, Sloan\u2019s attorney Nancy Doumanian asked the city to honor the verdict and pay the judgment to bring closure to Sloan, rather than \u201cspending taxpayer dollars\u201d on an appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppealing only prolongs the harm and deepens the divide, and what will bring this city together is not another legal battle in the appellate courts \u2013 it\u2019s an act of leadership and decency that I\u2019m calling upon you, imploring you, to follow,\u201d Doumanian said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

In an email to 17 News, Doumanian said the city is \u201ctaking steps consistent with appealing the jury\u2019s verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tNever miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Below is the comment Doumanian provided regarding the city potentially challenging the ruling:<\/p>\n

We are disappointed \u2014 but not surprised \u2014 that the City of Bakersfield has chosen to appeal the jury\u2019s verdict in Captain Sloan\u2019s case. A Kern County jury heard weeks of evidence, weighed every fact, and delivered a clear and powerful message: Captain Sloan was wronged. He gave 30 years of service to this community, earned a Medal of Valor, and deserved fairness \u2014 not mistreatment. We remain confident that the judgment will be upheld, and we will continue to stand with Captain Sloan as he fights to protect the rights of every firefighter who serves this city with integrity and heart.<\/p>\n

The City Attorney\u2019s Office said they have no comment because the case is still in litigation.<\/p>\n

The Bakersfield City Council is scheduled to consider this matter at its 5:15 p.m. meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 1501 Truxtun Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 The city of Bakersfield may appeal the verdict in a lawsuit filed by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-58470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58470","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=58470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}