News Too Real (3-12-26): After seven-year court-battle, Black, former City of Fresno employee called an 'entitled ni**a' by former supervisor wins lawsuit, awarded $15 million in damages
- Mar 16
- 8 min read
Former City of Fresno supervisor continually harassed former Black employee, calling her racial slurs, and continually gaslighting her with other employees and supervisors
By ONME Newswire
The verdict is in after seven, long, difficult, painful years of a long court battle: Former, Black code enforcement city of Fresno code enforcement employee, La-Kebbia "Kiki" Wilson and former employee Charles Smith won their deplorable, racial discrimination and hostile-workplace environment case unanimously on Wednesday, March 11. The eight-member (four men, four women) jury awarded Smith $400,000.00 and Wilson $15 million for damages as a result of the constant terrorizing harassment and racial discrimination by her former City of Fresno supervisor, Howard Lacy over several years. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff granted the jury's final verdict and award amount.
It was on October 22, 2019, when plaintiffs,Wilson and Smith filed a complaint in Fresno County Superior Court against the City of Fresno, and the individual defendant Howard Lacy, asserting sixteen causes of action, including: discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims under California's Fair Employment Housing Act ("FEHA"), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The current mayor and his administration, Jerry Dyer, are responsible for processing the court award on this case, although the racially charged workplace environment referred to in this lawsuit was during Mayor Lee Brand's term as mayor, who served one term from January 3, 2017 thru January 5, 2021, taking the office of the previous, two-term mayor, Ashley Swearengin. Unfortunately the City of Fresno may have a difficult time trying to appeal such a case, being that they have had a history of not treating Black employees fairly in the workplace over the years.
Current City of Fresno district 3 council member, Miguel Arias, is against any idea of an appeals process regarding this case, according to a press release and social media posting from his office dated March 12.
"Statement on Discrimination Jury Verdict: A federal jury awarded $15 million to La-Kebbia “Kiki” Wilson and $400,000 to Charles Smith, both former Code Enforcement employees," said Councilman Arias.
"I will oppose any effort to appeal the federal jury’s verdict. I urge the City to move forward responsibly by resolving the matter and reinforcing policies that ensure fairness, accountability, and a safe workplace for all employees."
The La-Kebbia Wilson and Charles Smith movie-like backstory:
These recurring workplace stories are most common among Black workers, especially Black female employees, according to a study in The Harvard Business Review. The in-depth article explains how "the angry Black woman stereotype has penetrated many parts of American culture, including the workplace. This pervasive stereotype not only characterizes Black women as more hostile, aggressive, overbearing, illogical, ill-tempered and bitter, but it may also be holding them back from realizing their full potential in the workplace — and shaping their work experiences overall," according to the article.
Wilson began working for the City in the code enforcement division in 2004. In 2009, Wilson sued the City of Fresno, and certain employees alleging discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on race. That lawsuit was settled in 2012. The settlement agreement included a release by Wilson of claims against the City and the City’s employees arising from Wilson’s employment prior to April 9, 2012.
In August 2013, Wilson was laid off from her position as a Community Revitalization Specialist (“CRS”). At the time, Wilson was the most senior employee on the reinstatement list of 8 people. Several of the other people on the reinstatement list that were laid off at the same time as Wilson returned to employment with the City of Fresno before Wilson was offered a position.
Wilson was reinstated in or about November/December 2016.
Plaintiff and Former employee, Charles Smith worked for the City of Fresno from 2016–2017 part-time under the same supervisor, Lacy. He said he was warned twice by different people not to file complaints with the human resources department and to only discuss concerns with the personnel representative within the department. Around December 2016, Smith saw Lacy and Wilson have an awkward exchange in the hallway, and Smith asked Lacy about the interaction. Lacy responded by warning Smith to “stay away from her,” saying “she’s lazy,” and describing Wilson as a “no-good piece of shit” who only got her job back after several layoffs because she“played the race card.” Lacy told Smith that if he wanted to get a full-time job with the City, he should stay away from Wilson.
Smith was hired for a full-time position in code enforcement in April of 2018. Smith and Wilson both attended a code enforcement training in May 2018. Lacy called Smith late at night sometime after the training and accused Smith of having a private meeting with Wilson and/or exchanging nods with her during the training. Lacy then advised Smith that he was watching Smith and suggested that meeting with Wilson would prevent Smith from passing probation and continuing his employment with the City.
On June 28, 2018, Smith and Lacy were jointly inspecting a property as part of their duties. The property was owned by an African-American woman. According to Smith, after the inspection was complete, Lacy said,“See Charlie, I’m not a racist. Kiki [referring to Wilson] wants to say that I’m a racist, but I’m not. I’m super nice. It’s her. Kiki is an entitled ni**a. I’m not saying ni**er. I’m saying ni**a—N-I-*-*-A.” At that point, Smith states he told Lacy:“ [J]ust stop it already. I don’t want to hear this crap. I get it, you hate Kiki, but I’m not here for your issue with Kiki.” Lacy then attempted to justify his comments by saying that “they don’t even listen to the right kind of music,” and called black rap artists “idiot rappers.” Smith pointed out that black rap artists made a lot more money than Lacy. Lacy soon after ceased speaking with Smith, stopped replying to his emails, and stopped replying to Smith’s texts. At one point Smith attempted to speak to Lacy, and Lacy said “No, I’m too busy for you,” and put a hand in Smith’s face.
Soon after the June 28, 2018, conversation, Lacy informed Smith that Smith was being transferred to the Tire Team. Smith indicates that working for the Tire Team was completely outside his skill set and that he had to re-learn everything from scratch. Smith asserts that Lacy transferred him to the Tire Team despite several glowing remarks and compliments on his work with his prior team. The same day Lacy informed Smith he was being transferred to the Tire Team, Smith had a 20-minute conversation with Tim Burns, who was Lacy’s supervisor and the Division Manager. The conversation was primarily about basketball, but Smith also informed Burns that he was concerned that his transfer to the Tire Team was an act of retaliation by Lacy. Burns did not discuss Smith’s concern about Lacy’s retaliation and instead told Smith he would be on the Tire Team for at least two years and that it was up to Smith to accept the transfer or not.
At some point in the course of his employment, Smith became aware that Lacy had sent out letters under Smith’s name without Smith’s knowledge. An acquaintance of Smith informed him that, after a City inspection,she received a billing from the City reflecting that Smith had done the work. Smith had not conducted any work at that residence. Smith reported the misrepresentation and possible fraud to Lacy. Lacy told Smith not to worry about it and that Lacy would be sending out lots of letters under Smith’s name.
Following these events, Smith states he was concerned he was going to be fired and he did not want that on his record. On July 10, 2018, Smith emailed his letter of resignation to the City. Smith also emailed Burns requesting to meet with him. Smith went up to Burns’ office after not receiving a reply. Burns was present but looked up from his computer, saw Smith and shook his head, and then looked down and did not engage with Smith. Smith left Burns’ office and decided to change his resignation notice to be effective immediately. Approximately 40 minutes later, Smith resigned effective immediately.
After resigning, Smith called Wilson on or about July 11, 2018. He told Wilson that Lacy had called her an “entitled ni**a” and told him she had “played the race card.” Following this conversation, Wilson, who was at work, headed to the human resources department to file a complaint. On her way there, she saw a coworker and raised her voice and said, “They’re all fucking liars. All of them.” Wilson made the statement in an open area, in the direction of two coworkers who were standing together. One of the coworkers reported to Andrea Cuevas, the City’s personnel manager in code enforcement, that Wilson had yelled the profanity at him. Cuevas decided to investigate the employee’s complaint herself rather than referring the investigation to a city attorney or outside investigator.
Cuevas interviewed Wilson, learned that Wilson had said the phrase shortly after learning she had been called a racial slur by Lacy, decided that the context did not excuse Wilson’s use of the profanity, and decided that a letter of reprimand to Wilson was warranted. Cuevas claims that it was impossible for her to know how offensive the racial slur used by Lacy would be to a Black person, because Cuevas was Hispanic. Burns issued Wilson a letter of reprimand for the use of profanity on August 10, 2018.
A letter of reprimand is the fourth level of disciplinary action out of eight possible progressive disciplinary actions, after an oral reprimand and before suspension.
On August 15, 2018, the City hired attorney Dallas Selling to investigate Wilson’s complaint concerning Lacy’s conduct.
Selling had no formal training in employment law or investigations into employee misconduct prior to investigating Wilson’s complaint. On January 30, 2019, the City’s personnel director instructed Selling to interview most of the witnesses identified by Wilson to “mitigate any opportunity for her to later claim that the investigation was incomplete. The City also instructed Selling to investigate and provide findings on Wilson’s conduct and behavior at the same time she was investigating Lacy’s alleged wrong doing. Selling conducted 12 hours of interviews over a period of approximately one year before submitting her findings and recommendations. During Selling’s interview with Lacy, she failed to ask Lacy whether he had used the racial slur to describe Wilson; instead, Selling questioned Lacy about his conversation with Smith without mentioning the racial slur, assuming Lacy would correct her if he had used the slur. Selling stated that she is unable to know if a black person would be offended by a white person calling them a “ni**a”because she herself has thick skin.
During the pendency of the investigation, the City placed both Wilson and Lacy on administrative leave with pay, which for Wilson lasted from August 31, 2018 to July 22, 2019. On August 30, 2019, Selling submitted her report to the City. Selling found Wilson’s complaint against Lacy to be without merit, concluding it was unlikely that Lacy ever called Wilson an “entitled ni**a.” Selling found that Wilson was known to be aggressive, hostile, and disruptive,and recommended that Wilson be terminated from her employment.
On September 6, 2019, the City delivered to Wilson a letter regarding the results of the investigation, which indicated that there were insufficient facts and evidence to sustain Wilson’s allegations against Lacy. The City also found that Lacy’s statement “that Ms. Wilson has improperly asserted numerous false allegations of racial discrimination”was not an intentional falsification of facts.
Based on the investigation, on September 30, 2019, the City issued Wilson a three-day suspension for violations of the Fresno Municipal Code and city policies. Wilson appealed the suspension to the City’s Civil Service Board(“CSB”).On September 14, 2020, the CSB issued findings and an order increasing the disciplinary sanction from a three-day suspension to termination. Wilson then filed a writ of administrative mandamus with the Fresno County Superior Court. The state court granted the writ on August 30, 2020, because on an appeal the CSB was not allowed to increase the sanction from a suspension to termination. On remand, the CSB incorporated the prior findings and imposed a 30-day suspension on Wilson without holding a further hearing. On May 13, 2019, Wilson filed an administrative complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”). DFEH issued Wilson a notice of her right to sue on May 17, 2019. Smith filed his administrative complaint with DFEH on or about June 10, 2019, and DFEH issued Smith a right to sue notice on June 11, 2019. On October 22, 2019, the plaintiffs filed their complain in state court. The City defendants removed the action to this Court on November 21, 2019.
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