I am amazed at this verdict, both for its swiftness and its size. Incredible, from an attorneys point of view. Obviously the harassment was very clear. The implications for Welty and the school will have to be sorted out. I renew my published view that the Athletic Department should be merged/abolished into the University as a whole as successfully done by Vanderbilt: note their teams this week!

How many of these does Fresno State have to lose before John Welty falls on his sword? As a Fresno State Alumni I haven't donated a dime in over 5 years, and will not until Welty is gone. And how does the University attract quality coaches, especially for the women's program with such track record?

The arrogance of Welty and the legal staff is what made them lose this case. As stated after the verdict Johnson-Kleins attorney said they would have settled for $950,000. In light of the other cases they lost they should have settled. 19 million is excessive but it does make a point that their crap won't be tolerated. Get rid of the Arrogant Welty and it is just a matter of time before Scott Johnson does something to cost the city big money as well.

There is something weird going on here! Any jury, that spends only 4 hours weighing months of testimony and then awards 12.1 million more than asked for - well, I’m missing something. Was the evidence so overwhelming in Johnson-Klein’s favor, the outcome so obvious, that it was never in doubt? That’s not what we have been hearing from the media!

With one accord, the TV and print media had been spilling out day after long day, the so-called titillating details of Stacy’s life. There sure seemed to be a disconnect between what the media has been feeding us and what the jury obviously heard and believed in the court room.

It strains credulity to think that FSU could paraded dozens, if not more, of students, witnesses, so-called experts, all with the most horrifying and even intimate details and stories, all fixated on one woman and the jury disbelieved all of it. The media has led us to believe that - based on their reporting - that there was no way she could win; at the very least, her winning anything was improbable.

In the late 80s, I served on a several months long lawsuit, that ended in a considerable award. It took us about a week of deliberations. When I heard that the jury returned a verdict in only 4 hours, my first thought was, "she’s fried." When I heard the verdict I was totally amazed. The jury’s decision had all the hallmarks of - "It’s a clear and obvious call - we never had a doubt." It was an unanimous verdict on every count.

There is something else going on here. Obviously, the public has been ill-served by the media. If one tenth of the things reported by the media and FSU were true, Stacy is the "wicked witch of the west" and probably has "666" written on her forehead. How could they mislead us so? It’s painfully obvious, that we were only allowed to see one side of a very complex lawsuit. Isn’t it the media’s responsibility to report both sides? Or not to take sides?

It almost seems that there was collusion between the various local media entities and FSU. Now, I know that nobody can admit to that, but I remain suspicious. It seems odd that every print & TV media reported the same story, the same way, with the same slant, every time. They never once deviated from the party line.

The one element they couldn’t control was the jury. And they sure saw things differently! Lucky for Stacy!

More & more I’m realizing the power of the media to confuse, distort and deceive. What else has been withheld from us?

Amazing - wild and crazy. You have to wonder; was the jury listening to the same evidence prsented in the media? How could it be okay for her to procure prescription medication from a student? This alone should have been enough to dismiss her outright. She certainly was well represented. I'm not so sure the entire community was as well represented or supported.

If the Bee doesn’t headline the Stacy Johnson-Klein story in tomorrow’s Bee with: "The Coach K Stomp" - you are missing a sure thing!

With all due respect, the common denominator is John Welty. When the OCR came to investigate in 1993, Johnson was the Sports Information Director, I believe. He was not a decision-maker.

The common factor is John Welty. He must be terminated from his position of leadership at CSUF. When there is a cancer, you must excise the tumor.

It time for the trustees to live up to their responsibilities, and for the good of all, end the careers of Chancellor Reed and President Welty now.

The members of this jury are sure to be the first to cast their vote for president for a woman who chose to stay with a man who sexually harrassed woman with regularity. How did this became a sexual harrasment issue anyway. This woman is a drug addict who verbally abused her players and assistant coaches,dressed inappropriately and is a pathological liar.Since when can you not fire somebody because their doing a lousy job.Speaking of which, Welty has got to go. Do you think he would win if he sued Fresno St.? Not a chance.

These verdicts cost all of us. For some it is an investment in the future and for others it is a legal lottery that is epidemic in this society. Monopoly money. I am very happy for Stacy and always have problems with injustice in the workplace. She performs well and I predict she will coach again. She should and keep discipline in her players. I bet this becomes a movie. It has all the elements of a popular one. Stacy Please coach again! I am sure some college would love to have you.

As an employee of Fresno State I stand firmly behind Dr. John Welty. If people would spend more time investigating the good he does here on campus and in the community ( I use the word investigate because you won't find his good deeds on any front pages or as the lead story on the 5:00 news) you might find that we are an ACADEMIC university with wonderful faculty, staff, students and programs that happen daily. Dr. Welty is ultimately responsible for what happens in athletics but I don't fault him for focusing on the academic side of the university and missing the Jr. High antics in athletics. As a female, I am appalled that Stacy Johnson-Klein lumped herself with "all women" in the community. I guess if she wanted to show you can abuse pain killers, walk all over people and still come out with 19 million she made her point.
I urge Dr. Welty to hold his head up in this community and on this campus and for all his supports to stand up for a man who has given a great deal to this community and stop waving the flag for 1 person from Oaklahoma who was here for 3 years and doesn't have many friends on campus especially her former players. What about the players....is Dr. Welty the only one standing up for them?

Everyone is talking about Welty, and I understand that. However, I think the problem here is much more profound. I think the whole climate of athletics and the whole department must be evaluated. Welty should appoint an independent commission to evaluate all of this, including any structural changes needed in the department. A president can only do so much. He needs a structure that would have avoided this, and didn't. Now such a structure should be created.

This is a sad, sad day for Fresno State and definately for the entire central valley. It is a clear case of the jury not listening to the facts and taking sides straight from the begining. I'm all for equal opportunity, but to have 11 women and 1 man on a jury, with a case about gender discrimiation is obsurd. Way to waste tax payers money and award outrageous money to someone who has decieved the valley. Horrible.

What part of this trend does Fresno State and the Chancellor's Office not understand?

We, the followers and believers of women's athletics at Fresno State have known this sad state of affairs for years.

As an alumus of Fresno State I am embarrassed to say where I graduated from.

Everyone knew when Scott Johnson came to power that no good would come of it. And that has been obvious.

Now, the trial(s) and verdict(s).

I have prosecuted employment law cases. They are not easy, and usually involve vicious accusations. Everyone expects a Fresno jury to be cheap.

Yet, we had the "Spanking Verdict" which I found to be not only excessive but mind boggling in its outcome.

Lindy Vivas was a breath of fresh air.

Stacey Johnson-Klein was not my idea of a good hire...but, she certainly did not deserve what she got from Fresno State.

Dan Siegal made a fantastic argument to the jury after Warren's opening. He put it in perspective: Men can literally get away with murder, and what's a little dope among athletes...male athletes? You can be an alcoholic, a cheat and God knows what else we don't know yet...and that's ok if you're a male coach.

But a woman? Speak up and you're fired, vilified and sent home with your career in ruins. Fight and there is no trash too tawdry to haul out, even if it really isn't true.

A verdict this fast, and this "furious", coupled with the same result in the Vivas matter...that tells you even Fresno jurors were appalled.

And to drag those kids into their dirty laundry basket was unforgiveable. What did they promise them? It is clear Coach Wiggins had his deal etched in stone, even though they let him swing in the wind for a while before they hired him.

And then, the wisdom of firing---wait, make that let Coach Nieves RESIGN rather than be fired---remember he was the had to have replacement for the apparently incompetent Coach Vivas---on the same day the jury is going out to deliberate! Now is that stupid timing or what?

It is time for a house cleaning at FSU...starting at the top.

And Mr. Reed at the Chancellor's Office shouldn't get a free pass either.

Then we have Ms. Theodora, counsel for the University, who, as a woman, should have gotten the message when she read the facts on the first case. Then, turns down an offer to settle that won't even cover the attorney's fee bill they will be getting in the SJK matter.

I am a taxpayer and I don't like to see taxpayer funds spent on jury verdicts that should never have happened. But, to be appalled and upset by the amounts FSU has squandered...well, we got what we let stay in power. These matters should have been resolved a long time ago.

But most importantly, these matters should NEVER have even happened. What is so hard to comprehend by administrators and boosters with too much power and say, to comprehend EQUALITY and Gender Equity?

Expensive lessons....

I guess the jury found out a few important things that I did not know, because this verdict seems like madness to me.

I am a professor at Fresno State, and when it comes to this case the fact that there was discrimination at Fresno State in the application of University policy is not relevant at all. The point is, Johnson-Klein broke our policies in many ways with her lunacy, and deserved to be fired because of it.

The fact that men who worked here were not fired for similar transgressions is not relevant at all. This is not a sound discrimination argument, a person has to be harmed by discrimination in order to be eligible for damages, you can't argue that "I wasn't harmed by the discrimination, but other people benefited from it." It doesn't matter whether the male coaches benefited from the discrimination.
The only time you are eligible for damages from discrimination is when you experienced a negative consequence, not when others experienced a positive consequence that involves Fresno State breaking its own policies. You can't force us to break our policies in your case by saying "look you did it for the sake of these men."

From what I learned, the members of this jury ought to be ashamed of themselves.

What now? A few predictions:

1. The judge will cut the jury’s award.

2. FSU - and administrators will drag out any possible settlement for years.

3. This will give them ample opportunity to further besmirch Stacy and women’s athletics in general. I look for a concerted effort on the part of the university to go extremely negative, to recoup their advantage. This will probably be done in collusion with the local media entities.

4. Red Wavers will bail out in even greater numbers.

5. FSU Athletics will be greatly hurt.

6. In a year, Welty, the AD and several coaches will be gone - hopefully, not Pat Hill.

7. It will probably cost Pat his stadium expansion.

If any of the contributors to this blog spent any time in court, they'd see how lopsided the verdict was. The Fresno State legal team was certainly not arrogant nor off the mark as Mr. Boren writes.

Through the jury, this is what we have learned about Fresno:
1) Universities are bad
2) it's ok for a coach in a position of authority to illegally take prescription pain medication from a player
3) it's ok for Fresno State coaches to conduct financial scams to pocket more money
4) it's ok for coaches to accuse staff and players of "inappropriate relationships" whether there are facts or not
5) it's ok for coaches to discuss sex with their players
6) it's ok for the university to pay coaches to attend tournaments that are cancelled
7) it's ok for coaches to claim they have no drug problem yet blame the university for not helping them
8) it's ok for coaches who are in drug induced stupors to be around students.

This coach put her players through horrible circumstances as team members. She, who claims to care so much for players, allowed her attorneys to yell, twist and hammer away at her players on the stand. Winning at any cost - but it tells you alot about her character.

Thanks, jury. Now I know what the Fresno community standard is.

Don't underestimate the power of a tall blond woman with a good lawyer.

I hope She at least gives a token donation to a nonprofit (or the like) for battered women, or other entity that fights gender discrimination.

I am appalled by the outcome. I think the jury was way to one sided to begin with. This trial should not be held here in the valley. It should be held outside the central valley. The people of the valley have biased views already. This wasnt even a fair case. Also look at the jury misconduct that probably occurred.

Welty and Co could have saved the University and taxpayers alot of money by settling in the first place cause he was wrong as were those that he hired. People think Stacy got away with the infractions put on her but remember she no longer has a job she loved and most likely never will again.She and her family have been drug through the mud and only their faith has carried them through. Yes 19 million is excessive and will be lowered but the voice of justice has still been heard. You can't treat women/people in a sexist manner or its gonna cost you. Now I hear of possible juror misconduct which may result in a new trial to which we will have to endure another 2 months of all of this and alot more taxpayers money. The juror definately should not be paid the whopping $15 a day for misconduct. Fsu should at the very least have to pay her back wages and future wages for up to 20 years including paying into social security on her behalf as well.

Regardless of the verdict in this case, it is clear to see that there is what the NCAA considers, "lack of institutional control" occurring at Fresno State Athletics. For over a decade, the probabtion received by numerous teams and legal trouble involving athletes, all have Welty at the center.

It seems that he was attempting to gain national attention for the university through sport. The result is an arean which is rarely sold out, medicore teams, and legal trouble. He has to resign.

When you add Campus Pointe to the list of his endeavors, it seems that the academic mission of the school has been damaged.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State. “

Quote by Joseph Goebbels

P.S. The lie is that all women are transcendent.

The 11 women of this jury who have bondaged California taxpayers for this award is an excellent argument for the repeal of the 17 amendment to the Constitution.

It is clear there was wrongdoing of some sort on both sides.

If they did offer SJK help and she refused it, it should be in the reports. If she was asked to resign and refused it, making them fire her, it should also be in the reports.

This is the one and only mistake they may have made.

What is Welty guilty of, trusting Johnson? Who really knows????

Aren't those people long gone? Didn't the University already fix the problem before the courts got around to hearing these cases? And that includes Dr. Welty getting a new athletic administration in place.

So...didn't he already fix his error?

However, Dean Florez' "statement" contains several falsities as well.

1. He still continues to paint a picture that Fresno State Athletics TODAY is the same as under the Johnson era. It is not.

2. All personnel were replaced and a great team is in there NOW and doing great things. These people were all vetted properly and have good track records on equity and everything else.

3. The Senator was invited to come and see it for himself. Did he ever do it?
He certainly dropped the issue like a hot potato at the time. Headline-grabbing?

Decide for yourselves.

Just another case that shows our system of justice doesn't work anymore, if ever. O.J & Stacy, with their 'dream teams', can convince a jury of anything.

I truly believe that Stacy has gotten away with murder. I hope that her past players hire her lawyers and file suit against her. I would LOVE to be on that jury. Also, after everything was done, she took the jurors out to dinner? Does that seem wrong to you too? I really hope that she takes her blood money and leaves town. Nobody wants her around. She is another O.J.

Justice has been served in this case and if you think FSU is better off in the Athletics Dept I suppose it is because the coaches are men now. You don't see women coaching any of the mens teams. Whos next Margie Wright.

I wonder if this gigantic jury award will catch the attention of our dear Governor and he'll do something about the Chancellor's office and the Board of Trustees and their good ole boy management style that is costing the State millions on lawsuits and settlement claims?

Kudos to SJK and her brillant attorneys for this hard fought victory. I work for the CSUs and they have been harassing and discrminating and getting sued for decades. Now finally, a high profile case exposes the Chancellor's office for the cowards and misfits they are.

Charles Reed should resign immediately. He is a disgrace to higher education.

Hi Jim. Interesting story. Nice blog. If we're looking for a culprit here, let's not forget the most influential and most amorphous force in all of this: Public opinion. The Fresno State athletic department caved in to the big backers decades ago. Fresno, and not only the rich boosters, wanted top men's teams. They wanted glory and a better reputation. They wanted to be as good as the big Pac-10 schools so our people could swagger into their stadiums and kick their guess whats.

A lot of smart people in Fresno put up with that attitude because critics were likely to get shouted down and because people began to believe that, with a little spirit somehow, the economy and the community would rise along with the football and basketball teams. The acceptable option for too many years was that it was OK to grease the process if it would finally make Fresno appear to be a famous winner, and never mind the interest in higher ethical or moral standards. Stanford and Duke could worry about ethics. They already had what they wanted. If Fresno needed to be a little, you know, rascally, that was just what hustlers have to do. And who would notice?

Obviously, in that culture, the people running the athletic department didn't see much need to treat women's sports equitably. Or any other sport that didn't capture the fans' money and passions.

Not until recent years has President Welty managed to gain control, and I respect that. But it took too many rascals and their scandals before public opinion began to turn. My sense is that the athletic department's direction has improved, and I'm glad. But the school still has to pay for past failures.

I hear people lament how we'll be paying for our administration's mistakes with Iraq for a long time. They shouldn't forget that the President enjoyed huge (perhaps naive) public support when he invaded Iraq. The same may be true for the mistaken approach in the university's athletic department. It seems that everyone wants to blame Welty now, but where were these critics for the past 30 years when most everyone just wanted to win -- at almost any cost, which included looking the other way from a 'happy' double-standard for high-profile men's teams? Some were in the arena cheering for players who, we would discover, had student statisticians writing their term papers. Which is called cheating. And what happened then? People chuckled.

Those things didn't force the public to call for a clean-up, for a culture of higher standards. They didn't seem to matter then, but they weakened the university's ability to ensure fairness. And so those old problems must matter now.
One person didn't cause this problem, and one person can't fix it.

Keep blogging.

To Prf. Fulop I say how is it not relevant that men are doing things and breaking policies and not getting fired. Thatv is ridiculous. It is your type ofmentality that has cost the university. People are people and deserve to be treated equally no matter what anatomy they have.

AS a former player Veronica Mack...We got slapped in the face for telling the truth..her lies, cheating, and greed awarded her 19million??? There should be some invstigation by Title IX...YOU SHOULDNT GET THE REWARDS OF BEING DISCRIMINATED IF IT NEVER HAPPENED...WE as a team, past players are really dissapointed in FRESNO...A PLACE WE CALLED HOME.....So I wonder if we tell the truth how much would that be worth????

Somebody who is flaunting her sexuality around like she did from the first day when she arrived to Fresno and then claiming she is a victim of sexual harassment, suing and winning this amount of money is absolutelly pathetic. I am a woman also but I do not buy this.
And the drugs and funds abuse during her coaching? How many positive things were said about her from the people who worked with her on a daily basis, her players and assistents? None. University had all the rights to fire her. Good job jury showing the working public of this county how to make millions through the legal system without working. She would never made these kinds of money in ten lifetimes. All what she needed to do was to cry that she was a victim of sexual advances. After acted like she did and wearing such a revealing clothes during her employment at Fresno State how in a world you as a jury would buy that.
Shame on you all the women on that jury.

If it takes a multi-million dollar verdict to get people to post on this site, so be it.

Notice also that the Senator AMENDED his statements to remove all references to the current athletic department in his official press release.

I hope Fresno State can continue to move forward in their progress. The public has been invited to participate in healing and moving on, in various initiatives on gender equity. I hope they took advantage of airing their helpful comments before the deadline.

Please do it for the sake of all of the students, most of whom were not even around back then and just want to take pride in their University from now forward.

Johnson-Klein was hired by Scott Johnson because of her "sex appeal" to sell her heterosexuality to benefit the sports program and to marginize certain women staffers. If that wasn't the reason, why did the University post her wedding photo album on the GoBulldogs.com website?

Tony Capozzi summed this case up well--the University's high-priced legal gunfighter blew it! He focused on the pills and all the other mud throwing (the employment case) and didn't even try to refute the sexual harassment or gender discrimination claims--which were what this case was all about. The jury's verdict was a slam dunk! I wouldn't hire that attorney ever.

First of all if a woman dresses nice and looks good doesn't make it right for men to sexually harrass her. She is a nice looking woman and I think she dressed professionally st all times. I did not feel like she was flaunting her sexuality at all. Maybe some people are just jealous that they don't get the attention that Stacy did. Do you even realize how much coaches make these days well men at least some up to 1 million a year. The jury has spoken and that is that.

Maybe if Johnson-Kline had worn a Burka all this would have been a non-issue.

I wish to follow up my earlier comment to the effect that the behavior of male coaches and staff is "not relevant" to Johnson-Klein's claims.

What I meant was, the presence of others who are allowed to break Fresno State policies does not entitle everyone to the same leeway.
Johnson-Klein is not entitled to any leeway in tolerating her strange behavior, because some men in her department were allowed to behave inappropriately.
This falls into the "two wrongs don't make it right" principle.

On the other hand, I do not believe the male coaches should have been allowed to do the things they were apparently allowed to do.
The only remedy is to demand better behavior from everyone on the staff, that's how we reach equality.
We can't say to the women "OK, you can mess around just like the men do," we rather have to do the opposite and reign in everybody's behavior.

I don't have a mentality of inequality.
I do feel that one of Johnson-Klein's major arguments was in essence that she shouldn't have been fired because other people weren't fired.
Well, haven't you ever gotten a speeding ticket?
You know full well that others got away with speeding in the past.
Should you? Of course not, you were still breaking the traffic laws, and you can't cry "discrimination" when you get a ticket and others did not.

Now if she also sued for sexual harassment, that's another matter and she probably deserves a partial judgment on those claims.

I do have an objection to the continued and multiple posts by one Jackie Krage. She admitted in an earlier blog that she was not in the courtroom, so where is she getting her information that is making her so adamant about this blogging campaign? She has blogged every place possible on this site.

Yet Welty is being accused of a PR campaign.

He has access to facts that Ms. Krage does not.

Does she have secret access to facts that the rest of us don't? I don't think so.

I don't expect you to post this, but it's getting a little ridiculous.

I just can not believe how some people are so blind.

They are much more attractive women than Stacy Johnson Klein is and they are not wearing such a revealing clothes showing their anatomy like she did.

On most of the pictures of her you can see all the way down her cleavage. And is this a professional behavior for a coach representing the University? What about all those sex talks she was trying to motivate her players with? Just talk to the people who knew her the most. Her players and assistents. Obviously this married woman is a sex and drug addict and the university just did not catch on until later. And now she gets millions of tax payers money to reward this behaviour.

One would think that all those women on the jury would see through her and her acting.

Well we can only hope that through the appeal process she will not get a dime out of this. She should go and work for the money like the rest of us.

Awarding this moneyhungry,sex and drug addicted,narcisstic woman millions of dollars is one of the most primitive act of human nature. I would love to know the average IQ of all those women on that jury.Too bad about the jury selection. I am sure if the jury would be more gender equal and more educated people on it the verdict would be very objective.That jury did not make a decision listening to the facts at all. It was all emotional and one sided from the beginning. Women against men battle. How sad how we ended up like this.
This can only happen in United States of America no other country in the world Stacy J-Klein would be able to get away with this behavior not saying making millions of dollars when other people have to work hard their whole life.

I was just excited to see the courageous blowhard, Senator Dean Florez, take on such another critical issue as the future of Dr. Welty, and threaten CSU funding if the governing board didn't do things Florez way. This is the same Florez, by the way, that has helped put the state over $25 billion in debt during his terms of office, with Arnold refinancing the first $15 billion and now looking for a way out on the most recent $10 billion run up with Dean's help.

Way to go Dean - "lights, camera, action"!

I don't think the Johnson - Klein firing was nearly as egregious as the Vivas firing, and certainly $19 million is a joke and won't stand the test of time.

Seems as if the past problems in the athletic deparment have been settled. The question of University leadership can most likely be settled without the brilliant Dean Florez assistance.

N K R is the one that must have inside information since He or she is such a know it all on this matter. Again if you don't want to read the blog then don't cause I will continue to write as often as I want to so get over it.

No, Jackie, I have absolutely no inside information whatsoever.

I have simply been trying to avoid all the "he said she said" and concentrate on the issues of the case.

And worrying about the most important part, the effect on the students, including the student-athletes, the most precious resources we have for making the future better.

That is why this country is in such a social turmoil and there are so many problems between women and men relationship because of women like this Jackie Krage who is so super opinionated answering almost every blog.

For $19 million you can sexually harrass me pretty much any way you like. As long as women can get settlements like this in court for anything short of rape they will never be considered the equal of men in the workplace. Indeed, they will be feared and shunned. Unfortunately, all women will be branded with the stigma of being weak and sensitive creatures who can't give as good as they get because of the actions of a few. It doesn't help that the law rewards this type of behavior.

I remember some chick got $300k for seeing Peyton Manning's butt in a locker room. She was a trainer. He mooned her. She got her payday but people aren't so irrational that they won't think twice about hiring another woman for that position the next time around.

Frankly, office places are sexless enough without the speech crime laws adding to the burden. I have to think that this period of history will be seen as ridiculous and sexist in the same way as the Victorian era... and for exactly the same reasons. Both periods see women as weak and in need of protection from the corser elements of society because Lord knows a woman can't be expected to stand up for herself and a creature of such delicacy and refinement certainly can't be expected to endure corse language or behavior like a man does. She needs other, more enlightened men or a paternalistic government to look after her.

It's the same BS in a different package.