Ex-coach rejects witness's account
Fresno Bee, 11/20/07
Lani Baldwin-Malcolm's deposition played Monday in Johnson-Klein's sexual discrimination trial against Fresno State also raised questions about whether Johnson-Klein tried this summer to influence Baldwin-Malcolm's testimony.
Johnson-Klein, the former Fresno State women's basketball coach, took the witness stand on Monday afternoon to deny that she:
*Took Baldwin-Malcolm's painkillers.
*Admitted to Baldwin-Malcolm that she lied in an Aug. 8 deposition when she denied taking pills from Baldwin-Malcolm.
*Tried to influence Baldwin-Malcolm's testimony, which was videotaped Aug. 30 in Oklahoma.
Baldwin-Malcolm's allegations were explosive even in a trial that has been full of bombshells. She is the first witness to claim that Johnson-Klein, several years before a similar incident at Fresno State, had pestered a student for her prescription medicine. More importantly to Fresno State's defense, the testimony suggested a pattern of irresponsible behavior by Johnson-Klein that predates her disputed firing.
Fresno State contends she was fired for violating university policies. Johnson-Klein alleges discrimination by a sexist university administration led by athletic director Scott Johnson.
Baldwin-Malcolm was a freshman student assistant at Cameron University in the 1999-2000 season when Johnson-Klein was the school's basketball coach. Baldwin-Malcolm testified that Johnson-Klein took prescription painkillers from her five or six times during that season.
Baldwin-Malcolm said the pills were prescribed to her for pain from recent knee surgeries. Baldwin-Malcolm said Johnson-Klein gave the same story each time: Johnson-Klein was hurting from her own injuries, she had a prescription but no pills on her, so she needed to borrow some from Baldwin-Malcolm.
Baldwin-Malcolm said she gave one or two pills each time Johnson-Klein asked.
She said Johnson-Klein also called her in mid-August, shortly before Baldwin-Malcolm was to provide the videotaped testimony at the request of Fresno State lawyers.
Baldwin-Malcolm said Johnson-Klein admitted in their hour-long phone conversation to lying in an Aug. 8 deposition when she told Fresno State lawyers she had never taken prescription painkillers from Baldwin-Malcolm.
"She said, 'I didn't mean to lie,' " Baldwin-Malcolm said.
Baldwin-Malcolm said Johnson-Klein did not ask her to lie. But, Baldwin-Malcolm said, Johnson-Klein suggested that she could say "I don't know" when lawyers asked questions about the pills.
Johnson-Klein denied in her Aug. 8 deposition and again Monday that she had taken prescription painkillers from Baldwin-Malcolm. Johnson-Klein acknowledged that she called Baldwin-Malcolm in August, but said it was only to assure Baldwin-Malcolm that a private investigator sitting outside her Oklahoma home was not connected to the plaintiff's team.
Johnson-Klein said she knew Baldwin-Malcolm was aware of allegations swirling around her lawsuit, filed in August 2005.
"I just asked her to understand my side," Johnson-Klein said.
The testimony of Johnson-Klein and the taped testimony of Baldwin-Malcolm provided a dramatic conclusion to a pivotal day in a trial entering its sixth week.
The morning began with Johnson-Klein voluntarily standing before Judge Donald S. Black and softly apologizing to the court for her brief but testy exchange of words with Fresno State lawyer Dawn Theodora at Thursday's lunch break.
Black accepted the apology without lengthy comment, and Theodora told the court she and Johnson-Klein had settled their differences.
Both legal teams and Black spent the rest of the morning negotiating an agreement on what would take place in the afternoon.
There were two issues, and the first was settled quickly and amicably.
After 18 days of testimony, Johnson-Klein lawyers Warren Paboojian and Dan Siegel had rested their case on Thursday. However, they asked Fresno State lawyers Theodora and Mick Marderosian if they could reopen their case so Johnson-Klein could re-testify.
Fresno State agreed, as did Black.
But the decision to put Johnson-Klein back on the witness stand was directly connected to the second issue: how much of Baldwin-Malcolm's taped testimony -- which was to kick off the defense case -- would be entered as evidence?
Johnson-Klein's lawyers wanted none. If Black had agreed, there would've been no need for their client to testify again.
Black previously had ruled that Baldwin-Malcolm's testimony could be used by the defense to cast doubt on Johnson-Klein's credibility. He reaffirmed that Monday.
But on Monday, Siegel told Black that he objected to portions of Baldwin-Malcolm's testimony. This angered Marderosian, who said Paboojian already had approved playing the tape as it was.
Black convinced both sides to join him in going over the deposition's transcript line by line outside the jury's presence. By early afternoon, Baldwin-Malcolm's videotape had been edited to everyone's satisfaction.
Both sides had good reason to fight so hard.
Fresno State fired Johnson-Klein in March 2005, alleging she broke university policies. Foremost among them, the university alleges, was the day in fall 2004 when Johnson-Klein took a half-bottle of prescription painkillers from sophomore guard Chantella Perera.
Johnson-Klein does not dispute the incident. The dispute is over its importance.
Johnson-Klein claims the Perera incident was a solitary "mistake" that did no harm. She claims the university is focusing on the incident to obscure the trial's essential point: Johnson-Klein was fired in retaliation for her persistent fight against the second-class status of female coaches and players at Fresno State.
Fresno State contends Johnson-Klein had an irresponsible grasp of her coaching duties. No better proof, the university contends, is Johnson-Klein's use of her power over Perera's athletic ambitions to force the player to give up a medicine controlled by law.
One-time mistake? Or out-of-control coach?
Baldwin-Malcolm's testimony could make or break either claim.
Johnson-Klein opened the afternoon session and refuted claims that hadn't been made yet.
In response to questions from Paboojian, Johnson-Klein said she began recruiting Baldwin-Malcolm at Lawton (Okla.) High.
But Baldwin-Malcolm seriously injured her left knee at a basketball camp. Baldwin-Malcolm later signed to play at Cameron on an athletic scholarship, but she arrived on campus in fall 1998 in no physical condition to play, Johnson-Klein said.
Baldwin-Malcolm became a student assistant and was given an academic scholarship, Johnson-Klein said.
Baldwin-Malcolm soon became a bitter, frustrated woman, Johnson-Klein said. Her playing career was all but dead, and she desperately wanted to rise in the college coaching ranks by hitching her career to Johnson-Klein's rising star, the former Fresno State coach said.
This wasn't to be, Johnson-Klein said. Baldwin-Malcolm's hostility hit a peak when she wasn't invited to Johnson-Klein's marriage to Chuck Klein in 2002, Johnson-Klein said.
Johnson-Klein said she had heard from former Fresno State assistant coach Drew Champagne last summer that Baldwin-Malcolm was upset with a private investigator lurking about her home.
Her sole motivation in calling Baldwin-Malcolm, Johnson-Klein said, was to say "I wasn't bringing this down on you."
In response to questioning from Marderosian, Johnson-Klein said she had no idea when making the call "that Lani Baldwin would be a witness in this case."
Marderosian concluded by reading from Johnson-Klein's Aug. 8 deposition. Asked if she had taken prescription painkillers from Baldwin-Malcolm, she said, "No."
Not true, Baldwin-Malcolm testified in a deposition attended by Johnson-Klein. Baldwin-Malcolm said she gave Johnson-Klein different types of prescription painkillers, but most often it was hydrocodone, the generic name for a narcotic painkiller that also goes by the brand name Vicodin.
In their August phone conversation, Baldwin-Malcolm said, Johnson-Klein was concerned about what Baldwin-Malcolm would say in her deposition about the prescription painkiller incidents at Cameron.
"She encouraged me not to talk about it. 'Don't tell them. Don't talk about,' " Baldwin-Malcolm said.
"I told her I was going to tell the truth."