Lt. Gov. Kounalakis, candidate for governor, could testify in Fresno State harassment suit

California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis could be pulled into a harassment and retaliation lawsuit brought by a Fresno State employee if a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denies a motion for a protective order that would prevent her from being deposed in the case.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Terrance Wilson, was a primary source in a February 2022 USA Today report that detailed the university’s mishandling of years of sexual harassment, bullying and retaliation allegations against Frank Lamas, the former Fresno State vice president of student affairs.

Shortly after that story was published, Wilson, who worked in accounting services had his campus key card disabled and his access to the building cut off, a violation of the university’s collective bargaining agreement and retaliation for his involvement in the USA Today expose, he claims. Wilson’s lawyers say the lockout amounted to a continuation of years of harassment and bullying on campus.

Wilson in December 2022 filed a civil lawsuit alleging blatant harassment and retaliation in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. The lawsuit says that Lamas created a hostile work environment based on Wilson’s gender and sexuality and because Wilson objected to Lamas’ refusal to abide by proper accounting practices.

When Wilson complained, Lamas, according to the lawsuit, became noticeably hostile, refused to allow Wilson to transfer to another position and gave him a negative performance review. The lawsuit also alleges that as other employees came forward and complained about harassment from Lamas, Castro thwarted any effective investigation into the alleged conduct, or any remedial measures to correct it.

Fresno State, the CSU and its board of trustees, Castro and Lamas are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In several depositions, university administrators acknowledged that the lockout occurred, but denied responsibility and disputed who was responsible for ordering the lockout, in addition to providing contradictory testimony, according to exhibits in a motion that was filed by Wilson’s attorneys, Stephen Hammers and Phillip Baker.

The lawyers say that someone gave the order to lockout Wilson, and they believe that Kounalakis has personal knowledge that could shed light on the case. This includes her memory of a phone conversation with former CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro a few days after the USA Today news story was published but before Wilson had his access to the building where he worked cut off.

“We contend she has a personal relationship with a major party, that is Dr Castro, at a critical time in the fact pattern,” Hammers told The Bee. “The law provides that high-ranking government officials cannot be deposed. The exception to the rule is if they have personal involvement and knowledge with the facts at issue and we argue that she certainly does.”

Kounalakis, who has announced that she will run for governor in 2026, said in a sworn declaration attached to the motion for the protective order that she has no specific recollection of speaking to Castro about the USA Today article, and that she has never discussed Wilson with Castro or anyone else.

However, Castro, in an Aug. 21 deposition, described in detail a conversation he had with Kounalakis days after the USA Today article was published.

“This is one of those motions where the facts literally speak for themselves,” Hammers said. “You’ve got the highest ranking official at the nation’s largest university system speaking with the second highest ranking government official in California a few days after an article exposes multiple serious instances of abuse at the university on which they sit on the board. A few days after their conversation, one of the primary victims of the abuse is locked out of the university. The suggestion that those two (board of trustees) members did not discuss that article in their conversation is unbelievable.

“We want to talk to the lieutenant governor about that telephone call, especially since she didn’t even mention it in her declaration in support of the motion,” he said.

A hearing on the motion for the protective order for Kounalakis is set for Dec. 4 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Attorneys for the CSU and Kounalakis in a response to the plaintiff’s motion that was posted to the court website on Wednesday contend Wilson was not discussed in the conversation between Castro and Kounalakis and that she was not involved in the “access-to-building issue,” according to the reply to the opposition motion.

The CSU attorneys also challenged the use of the term “locked out” and claim Wilson and his attorneys have not met the burden to establish any reason, much less a compelling reason, to depose Kounalakis, which is required for the taking of the deposition of an apex official such as the Lt. Governor.

If allowed, the plaintiff’s attorney’s would like to set Kounalakis’ deposition for Dec. 18, according to court documents.

Wilson and his attorneys also intend to depose Fresno State president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval and former Title IX deputy Erin Boele in December, according to court documents. They have already taken depositions in the case from Castro, Lamas, vice president of administration Deborah Adishian-Astone, associate vice president of human resources Marylou Mendoza-Miller and former dean of students Carolyn Coon.

Fresno State president to be deposed

There were inconsistencies in testimony by Fresno State officials on the lockout of Wilson and who ordered it, before Wilson and his attorneys deposed Castro in August.

When Wilson’s lawsuit was filed he was serving as vice president of finance for the employee’s union, and essentially on loan from the university. Fresno State continues to pay Wilson, and is reimbursed by the union.

Mendoza-Miller said in her Aug. 15 deposition that Wilson’s access to campus should have continued after he was elected to the union position and while on a leave from the university.

Is it your testimony that (access) should have continued, Mendoza-Miller is asked.

“Yes,” she said.

Mendoza-Miller said that Adishian-Astone, along with Ben Hilton and John Fugatt, administrators who work in departments that Adishian-Astone oversees, made the decision to lock Wilson off campus. Mendoza-Miller also said she was not included in the process where Wilson lost his access.

Adishian-Astone said in her July 22 deposition that the decision was made in the department where Wilson worked.

Wilson, however, had been appointed to the union position in December 2020 and was elected to a three-year term in June 2021. He was on leave from the university for more than a year, but his access to campus apparently was not addressed until he had been quoted in the USA Today story.

Two other Fresno State staffers quoted in the article had left the university by 2022.

Adishian-Astone also testified that there was a lack of understanding about the protocols for access when employees are on full-time leave and that the lockout was a mistake — the university was only to limit after-hours access, she said. Asked who made the mistake, Adishian-Astone said: “I don’t know, but it happened between the home department and the lock shop.”

About six weeks after her depositions, the university announced that Adishian-Astone would retire at the end of 2024.

Conflicting testimony between administrators at Fresno State

Astone, in a deposition, singles out Hilton and Fugatt. She was asked whether they took unilateral action to remove Wilson’s access, and her response, as transcribed in the deposition, was: “They did. That was - those were — what can’t — happened with the communications you saw between Ben Hilton and John Fugatt, and then after the fact is when we started to look at — well, wait a minute, where is this a policy, where is it a protocol, how do we handle union employees on leave, and then that’s what subsequently got reinstated in April.”

Wilson had his access restored in April 2022, two months after it had been cut. But it took nearly two years before he again was listed in the university’s staff directory — he had been removed, when his access to campus buildings was cut off.

Attorneys for the CSU filed the motion for a protective order to prevent the deposition of Kounalakis on the grounds that it is irrelevant, burdensome, oppressive and harassing, and they cite a state civil procedure code that allows the court to issue the protective order.

But attorneys for the plaintiff contend the CSU and Kounalakis left out crucial facts in their motion for a protective order, including the phone call with Castro.

Newsom responds with emoji

Castro, according to court documents, sent text messages the morning that the USA Today article was published apprising various high-ranking state officials that he was featured in the USA Today story and that it contained several “falsehoods.” He sent the same text to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate president pro temp Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and Kounalakis.

All responded in some fashion, including a thumbs up emoji from Newsom, simply acknowledging receipt of the text, according to Castro.

The governor, lieutenant governor, speaker, superintendent of public instruction and CSU chancellor are all ex-officio members of the CSU board of trustees.

But Kounalakis was the only board member that Castro spoke with on the telephone between the date the USA Today article was published and Wilson was locked out of the Joyal Administration building on campus, according to Castro in his deposition.

Wilson and his attorneys, in countering the motion for a protective order for Kounalakis, said in court documents the lieutenant governor has a “personal connection with the primary actor in this most important part of the story, and the court should hold CSU accountable for failing to provide all the facts” in its motion and said there is no means of gathering the information at issue through any other reliable source.

“The notion that they didn’t discuss the article is hard to believe,” he said.