Okorie v. L. A. Unified Sch. Dist.

• Citation: 222 Cal.Rptr.3d 475,14 Cal.App.5th 574
• Decision Date: 16 August 2017
• Docket Number: B268733
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Dioka OKORIE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants and Respondents.

14 Cal.App.5th 574

222 Cal.Rptr.3d 475

Dioka OKORIE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants,

v.LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants and Respondents.

B268733

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, California.

Filed August 16, 2017

Law Offices of Akudinobi & Ikonte, Chijioke O. Ikonte ; Law Office of Metu C. Ogike and Metu Chikezie Ogike, Los Angeles, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Anthony J. Bejarano, Assistant General Counsel, and Alexander Molina, Chief Labor and Employment Counsel, for Defendants and Respondents

JOHNSON, J.

In 2015, Dioka Okorie (Okorie) sued his employer, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and two of his supervisors, Jacqueline Hughes (Hughes) and Cynthia Jackson (Jackson) (collectively, Defendants), alleging, among other things, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. In response, Defendants filed a special motion to strike the complaint pursuant to section 425.16 of the Code of Civil Procedure¹ —a so-called anti-SLAPP motion² —which the trial court granted.

On appeal, Okorie and his wife, Nkeiru Okorie (collectively, Plaintiffs) advance two principal arguments. First, they contend that the trial court erred in granting the anti-SLAPP motion because the complaint contained allegations regarding both protected and unprotected activities by the Defendants. Second, they argue that the motion should have been denied because they demonstrated a likelihood of success on certain of their causes of action. We disagree with both arguments and, accordingly, affirm.

BACKGROUND

I. Plaintiffs' complaint

According to the complaint, in 2003, LAUSD hired Okorie as a teacher at Westport Heights Elementary School. While at the school, Okorie took on a number of responsibilities in addition to his classroom duties; for example, after normal school hours (i.e., when he was not being paid) he worked with at-risk students.

In 2013, LAUSD appointed Hughes as the school's principal. Shortly thereafter Hughes allegedly began to harass Okorie on a "constant" or "monthly" basis. Among other things, Hughes purportedly questioned Okorie's disciplinary practices, telling him, " ‘I know you are from Africa and the way you reprimand kids in Africa is different from here in America.’ " In addition, Hughes undermined Okorie's reputation with his coworkers by telling them that "parents were complaining to her about [him]," but never meeting with Okorie to discuss these complaints. Moreover, Hughes would allegedly have "meetings with other members of the [school's] teaching staff but would not meet with [him]" and would "send messages and directives to [him] through his colleagues." At one point, Hughes allegedly asked Okorie to "bear false witness" against a parent in favor of another teacher; when Okorie refused to do so, Hughes's alleged harassment of Okorie "intensified." This intensified harassment included "meritless write ups" that were hand delivered by the school's administrative staff to Okorie during "instructional hours."

On April 4, 2014, Hughes summoned Okorie to her office where Jackson, a representative of LAUSD's Educational Service Center West (ESC), advised Okorie that an " ‘allegation’ " had been made against him and, as a result, he was reassigned to his home pending the investigation. Hughes subsequently advised the school's parents that Okorie had been "walked off campus for misconduct and the ... safety of staff and students." Shortly after putting Okorie on home leave, Hughes advised him that he had been reassigned to ESC, which, according to Okorie is "commonly known as teacher jail." At ESC, Okorie suffered harassment from Jackson on a "weekly basis." Among other things, the harassment involved Jackson yelling at Okorie as she demanded that he return the computer that LAUSD had issued to him. Okorie remained at ESC until LAUSD charged him with misconduct involving students.

On the morning of October 13, 2014, LAUSD investigators appeared at Okorie's home with a search warrant. As some of the officers searched the home for a laptop and a computer tablet, other officers questioned Okorie and his wife while their children were in the living room crying; the questioning included inquiries about the Ebola

outbreak that was at the time occurring in several countries in West Africa.

Plaintiffs do not allege that LAUSD ever terminated Okorie's employment. Instead they allege that "[a]s a result of the [accumulation] of the above described incidents.... Plaintiffs ... faced unimaginable humiliation and embarrassment" due to Defendants' conduct.³

Based on these factual averments, Plaintiffs asserted eight separate causes of action: five claims brought pursuant to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)—discrimination based on race and national origin; gender discrimination; retaliation; failure to prevent discrimination; and racial harassment; two common law causes of action—intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation; and a federal civil rights cause of action brought pursuant to title 42 United States Code section 1983.

Consistent with their accumulation theory, Plaintiffs do not identify specifically or list separately each act of alleged misconduct by Defendants giving rise to each cause of action. For example, in connection with their employment discrimination causes of action, Plaintiffs do not identify the specific adverse employment actions giving rise to their claims. Instead, they allege generally that all of the various acts of misconduct identified in the section of their complaint entitled "FACTS COMMON TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION" constitute the operative adverse employment actions. (Underscore omitted.)

II. Defendants' anti-SLAPP motion

Defendants challenged Plaintiffs' complaint by filing an anti-SLAPP motion only. In other words, Defendants' special motion to strike was not accompanied by any other challenges, such as a demurrer and/or a conventional motion to strike. In their anti-SLAPP motion, which sought to strike the entire complaint, the Defendants argued that the gravamen of the complaint (as well as each individual cause of action) was based on protected activity—speech or communicative conduct either made as part of or as a precursor to the internal investigation that LAUSD undertook in response to a molestation allegation made against Okorie.

In support of their anti-SLAPP motion, the Defendants provided additional information regarding the alleged molestation. Much of this information came from John Metcalf (Metcalf), an investigator on LAUSD's Student Safety Investigation Team (SSIT). On March 31, 2014, during a retreat, a senior at St. Bernard High School revealed to 68 classmates and five teachers that, when he was younger, he had been molested by a teacher. The next day, the student's teacher made a state-mandated report of suspected child abuse. While being interviewed by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the student identified Okorie as his molester. The student further stated that Okorie had molested him on three separate occasions: March 2006; November 2006; and February 2007.

On April 2, 2014, LAPD informed LAUSD of the student's allegations. Two days later, on April 4, 2014, LAUSD removed Okorie from his classroom and assigned him to his home pending the investigation into the allegations. Throughout the course of the subsequent investigation, Okorie refused to answer questions from either the LAPD or SSIT.

As part of SSIT's investigation into the molestation allegations, LAUSD directed Okorie to turn over all LAUSD computer equipment that had been issued to him, including a laptop and a computer tablet. Okorie advised LAUSD that he did not know where the computers were. LAPD subsequently obtained a warrant to search the records of Okorie's personal internet service provider; those records revealed that the laptop and the tablet were accessing internet service from Okorie's home. In October 2014, five months after first being asked to return LAUSD's property, LAUSD, pursuant to a search warrant, found the computers at Okorie's home.

During the course of its investigation into the molestation allegation, SSIT became aware of two alleged incidents of improper discipline and child abuse by Okorie during the period 2011–2013.

III. Plaintiffs' opposition

In their opposition, Plaintiffs stressed that not all of the alleged misconduct arose out of the molestation investigation, that some of the alleged misconduct predated the investigation.

In support of their opposition to Defendant's anti-SLAPP motion, Plaintiffs submitted a number of declarations, including a declaration by Okorie. In his declaration, Okorie provided additional details about the acts of harassment alleged in the complaint. With regard to the return of the computer devices issued to him by LAUSD, Okorie denied lying about the whereabouts of the computers and stated that he did not need to return the property when requested to do so in May 2014, because at the time he was still a LAUSD employee. He flatly denied the molestation allegation and improper discipline allegations.

Most of the other declarations derived from various character witnesses—parents of students taught by Okorie and pastors, all of whom attested to Okorie's high moral temperament and abilities as a teacher.

In addition, Plaintiffs filed evidentiary objections to Metcalf's declaration.

IV. The trial court's ruling

On November 6, 2015, the trial court heard oral argument on Defendants' anti-SLAPP motion, took the matter under submission, and then issued a written ruling granting the motion. The trial court found that Plaintiffs' claims were subject to the anti-SLAPP statute because the "gravamen of the complaint" related to protected conduct by LAUSD: communications and actions related to the internal investigation into the molestation allegations. With regard to Plaintiffs' evidence, the trial court found that the "character" declarations were irrelevant, as they did not offer any facts to support...