Fresno State Coach Wins $19.1 Million for Gender Discrimination and Retaliation

Stacy Johnson-Klein coached the Fresno State women's basketball program for several years before the university fired her in 2005. The termination was public and carried out in a way her legal team described as deliberately humiliating. CSU Fresno cited reasons including alleged possession of a student athlete's medication and claims of erratic behavior. Johnson-Klein said those reasons were pretextual and that the real cause was her advocacy for gender equity in the athletic department.

The contrast she drew was specific. The men's basketball coach had resigned amid more than 400 documented NCAA violations, yet faced a quieter departure and different institutional treatment. Warren Paboojian, who represented Johnson-Klein at trial, focused the jury on a 380-page termination report the university had initially withheld and later published online before the firing was finalized. Paboojian systematically challenged that report's credibility, calling it the central battleground of the case.

On December 6, 2007, after roughly four hours of deliberation, a jury of eleven women and one man returned a unanimous verdict on all counts: sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. The award totaled $19.1 million for past and future economic losses and suffering. At the time, no plaintiff had recovered a larger jury award in an employment case against a U.S. public entity.

Fresno State appealed and a judge subsequently reduced the award to approximately $6.6 million plus $2.5 million in attorney fees. Rather than continue through the appellate process, the parties reached a settlement in 2008. The agreed figure was $9 million, structured as a $5.4 million lump sum, annual payments of $150,000 over twenty years, and $100,000 education annuities for each of Johnson-Klein's six children.

The verdict was one of three large jury awards against Fresno State's athletic department issued in close succession, drawing national attention to Title IX compliance and gender equity obligations at public universities. The California Labor and Employment Law Blog noted the $19.1 million figure as a record for employment verdicts against a public entity. Inside Higher Ed reported the university's stated intent to appeal, which it pursued before the parties eventually resolved the case by agreement.