Race discrimination, retaliation case overshadowed by accusations against trial judge
A plaintiff filed two lawsuits against his then employer, the Bassett Unified School District. The school district later raised the issue of whether the trial judge had been impartial. The California Court of Appeal said that she was.
In the first suit, the plaintiff alleged racial discrimination and other claims against his employer. The parties settled this case. The plaintiff then filed the second suit. This time, he claimed that the school district fired him in retaliation for bringing the first suit.
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Judge Stephanie Bowick was in charge of the trial. One time, while she was on her way out of the courthouse, Judge Rupert Byrdsong told her that some attorneys from his former firm were involved in the case.
In Judge Bowick’s courtroom, Judge Byrdsong greeted the plaintiff’s counsel during a break in the proceedings. He later brought Judge Bowick food after exchanging messages with her judicial assistant. He sat in the audience to observe the jury selection. Judge Bowick asked her judicial assistant to pass a note telling him to leave. He did so.
Judge Bowick, changing her own previous decision, allowed the plaintiff to introduce evidence of specific allegations of racial discrimination from the first lawsuit. In the end, the jury issued a verdict awarding the plaintiff $24,584,449.
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