Tamara Evans found something fishy in the expenses filed by a San Diego contractor for the state’s police certification commission.

Classes were reported as full to her employer, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, even if they weren’t. Meeting room space was billed, but no rooms were actually rented. Sometimes, the number of people teaching a course was less than the number of instructors on the invoice.

In 2010, Evans reported her concerns about the contract to auditors with the California Emergency Management Agency.

Then, Evans alleged in a lawsuit, her bosses started treating her poorly. Her previously sterling performance reviews turned negative, and she was denied family medical leave. In 2013, she was fired — a move she contends was a wrongful termination in retaliation for whistleblowing.

Last week, a federal court jury agreed with her, awarding her more than $8.7 million to be paid by the state.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleged that Evans found governmental wrongdoing and faced retaliation from her employer, and that she wouldn’t have been fired if she hadn’t spoken up.

That’s despite a State Personnel Board decision in 2014 that threw out her whistleblower retaliation claim and determined the credentialing agency had dismissed her appropriately.

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