Fresno County Superior Court announced today that the $19.1 million awarded to Stacy Johnson-Klein will be reduced to $6.6 million. Former women’s basketball coach Johnson-Klein has a choice between accepting the award, or holding an entirely new trial to get a different decision. She has until 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 to decide.
A statement made by Dawn Theodora, of the CSU university council, said, “We are pleased that the court recognized that the verdict in this case was excessive and reduced the award.” According to Theodora, the school plans to continue exploring their legal options, including appeal.
Johnson-Klein sued the university in 2005, alleging gender discrimination after she was fired. Fresno State has said that she was fired for several violations, including taking half a bottle of prescription pain killers from a player.
gm • Feb 11, 2008 at 10:18 am
Scout,
In case you didn’t notice, the judge agreed with the jury about the evidence. Where he parted with them was on the amount awarded for emotional distress. If this firing had occurred in an atmoshere devoid of things like ugly womans sports day, athletic administrators and employees frolicking in hotel rooms on the university dime, the established harrasment of Vivas and Milutinovich, the refusal to sign Margie Wright’s contract that had already been negotiated until after her testimony (talk about a blatant attempt to intimidate) the slap on the wrist for Ray Lopes and the golden parachute given to Scott Johnson (remember when he left we paid his salary for several months after his departure and he received a glowing recommendation that got him a job with the City of Fresno for which he was completely unqualified. Can you say hush money?) the university would still have been sued because of the manner in which they fired Johnson-Klein. Any first year manager and some hole in the wall mall store would know better than to call a press conference and release a report detailing all of the university’s accusations against her (have they ever heard of confidentiality?). It was gross incompetence. I’m no fan of Johnson-Klein and believe she deserved to be fired in the proper manner, but peoples ire should be directed toward the people in charge at this university who, by tolerating a boys locker room atmosphere in the management of the Athletic department and allowing their anger to get the best of their better judgement (if they have any), cost the university millions, tarnished its reputation and will impact athletics for some time to come.
gm • Feb 11, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Scout,
In case you didn’t notice, the judge agreed with the jury about the evidence. Where he parted with them was on the amount awarded for emotional distress. If this firing had occurred in an atmoshere devoid of things like ugly womans sports day, athletic administrators and employees frolicking in hotel rooms on the university dime, the established harrasment of Vivas and Milutinovich, the refusal to sign Margie Wright’s contract that had already been negotiated until after her testimony (talk about a blatant attempt to intimidate) the slap on the wrist for Ray Lopes and the golden parachute given to Scott Johnson (remember when he left we paid his salary for several months after his departure and he received a glowing recommendation that got him a job with the City of Fresno for which he was completely unqualified. Can you say hush money?) the university would still have been sued because of the manner in which they fired Johnson-Klein. Any first year manager and some hole in the wall mall store would know better than to call a press conference and release a report detailing all of the university’s accusations against her (have they ever heard of confidentiality?). It was gross incompetence. I’m no fan of Johnson-Klein and believe she deserved to be fired in the proper manner, but peoples ire should be directed toward the people in charge at this university who, by tolerating a boys locker room atmosphere in the management of the Athletic department and allowing their anger to get the best of their better judgement (if they have any), cost the university millions, tarnished its reputation and will impact athletics for some time to come.
Scout • Feb 8, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Man it shouldn’t even be that much, I hope she goes for a new trial and the whole thing gets overturned. This was the one trial were I totally thought that Fresno State was in the right about it, but I guess the jury didnt let a little thing like EVIDENCE cloud their judgement.
Scout • Feb 8, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Man it shouldn’t even be that much, I hope she goes for a new trial and the whole thing gets overturned. This was the one trial were I totally thought that Fresno State was in the right about it, but I guess the jury didnt let a little thing like EVIDENCE cloud their judgement.