A federal jury awarded a Black woman who formerly worked in code enforcement for the city of Fresno $15 million in damages after finding the city liable for racial discrimination and retaliation last week.
La-Kebbia “Kiki” Wilson’s legal battle began in October 2019, when she and a co-worker, Charles Smith, filed a complaint against Fresno and their former supervisor, Howard Lacy, whom they accused of calling her the N-word and taking adverse employment actions against each of them for complaining about the harassment.
Smith, who is white, was awarded $400,000 by the jury.
Wilson’s rocky relationship with Lacy began soon after she was hired as an inspector in the city’s code enforcement division in 2004, according to her complaint originally filed in Fresno County Superior Court (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star). It was moved to the U.S. District Court in California in 2020…