Bakersfield, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — The California State University, Bakersfield, and the Board of Trustees of California State University are facing another lawsuit involving its athletics department.
Former Athletic Director Kyle Conder filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Los Angeles, claiming retaliation in violation of whistleblower protections among several other allegations.
Kyle Conder, CSUB’s Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics, was let go in September after nearly three years in the position.
Dr. Sarah Tuohy, Associate Athletics Director for Development and Senior Woman Administrator, was appointed to serve as Acting Director of Athletics while the university launched a search for Conder’s replacement.
The lawsuit was first reported on by Sports Illustrated; however, Eyewitness News was able to obtain our own copy of the court filing.
In the complaint, Conder claims he’s being retaliated against by the university for reporting a threat against a former softball coach to the campus police department instead of the Title IX office.
The lawsuit says Conder learned about a serious accusation about CSUB’s softball program on February 21-22, 2025.
He said the family of former player Violet Salazar complained about unfair treatment she was experiencing, like not getting enough time on the field and not being included in the starting lineup.
Conder said they told him they’d they’d go to the local media if things didn’t change. They also later told him that the former softball assistant coach, James Davenport, engaged in inappropriate behavior with at least one player and grabbed on player, and threatened them with a gun.
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He said he reported this information to campus police, and the police chief responded that they would open an investigation.
A week after his conversation with Salazar’s family, Conder says two people who were later confirmed associates of Salazar approached Davenport and threatened to kill him.
He was instructed to have Davenport fill out a workplace violence report as well as a report to the CSUB Title IX Office.
In that report, Davenport included that he had reason to believe Salazar was having a relationship with an assistant basketball coach named Kevin Mays, who is now facing human trafficking charges.
Conder later met with the Behavioral Assessment Intervention and Response Team, also known as BART on March 4 and 7 which included Lori Blodorn (CSUB Vice President of People and Culture), Emily Poole-Callahan (Dean of Students), Deborah (Debbie) Boschini (Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs), Maricela (Mari) Gonzalez (Chief of Police), Greg Kinder (Police Captain), Jevan Lane (Director of Safety and Risk Management), Catherine (Cathy) Barrad (General Counsel), and Melissa Carleton (an out-of-state consultant that Blodorn had just contracted to address Title IX matters) to share information and receive direction.
Following the second meeting with BART, Conder met with Davenport and the head coach of the softball team, Leticia Olvarez, and placed them on administrative leave while the university investigated the allegations. On March 10, Conder was informed he was no longer allowed to attend BART meetings involving the softball program, as they were trying to figure out which department would lead the investigation.
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That same month, Salazar posted on social media videos accusing Davenport of sexual assault, body shaming, and verbal abuse.
Following those public accusations, Conder says the university conducted “interviews with nearly two dozen individuals (student-athletes, parents, and employees) as part of its investigation.”
He said multiple student-athletes and parents came forward supporting the coaches and pointing to a deeper issue: they reported concerns that Mays was engaging in illegal activities, and that Salazar (the accuser) was closely involved with Mays.
The lawsuit claims “Salazar’s accusations against the softball coaches might have been a smokescreen to distract from Mays’ wrongdoing. Davenport informed Plaintiff and other administrators that he suspected Mays and Salazar were involved in criminal conduct.”
He says he acted as a whistleblower by “relaying the concerns that a CSUB coach (Mays) might be exploiting a student-athlete and committing crimes.”
On August 18, Conder says he was called to attend a meeting with Blodorn and CSUB President Vernon Harper to discuss the next steps after the softball investigation; however, instead, he was abruptly terminated from his role at the university.
He said they did not explain his termination, but he later learned “CSUB officials took the position that Plaintiff mishandled the softball incident by reporting it to the police and other administrators rather than to the (non-existent) Title IX Coordinator.”
When the allegations were made by Salazar, Conder claimed CSUB did not have a Title IX Coordinator an outside consultant was being used to address those concerns.
He believes the university was actually concerned about a potential lawsuit that would be filed by Salazar and thinks that he was let go to appease her family and potentially stop them from filing.
Conder also accuses the university of defamation because of the words used in a statement from CSUB President Harper following the arrest of Mays.
He said by including the words like “correct” and “recent inaccurate assertions,” Harper was attempting to rebut claims that the university had ignored or covered up wrongdoing by Mays. He said that by labeling those accusations of misinformation, the university is calling whistleblowers liars.
“In reality, the whistleblowers’ assertions were accurate – CSUB did ignore or failed to act upon critical red flags about Mays until it was too late.”
The accusations over breach of contract come from Conder claiming that the university did not keep its end of the bargain for the settlement agreement between him and the university.
He claims they went back on their agreement to provide him compensation through the 2025-26 academic year, did not issue the agreed-upon public statement announcing his departure, and did not remove the “non-retention” document from his file.
Conder claims he’s suffered career and economic losses, reputational harm, and emotional distress due to the loss of his position.
