Fresno Women's basketball soap opera

MeanGreen61 · March 30, 2005

Kinda long, but interesting article. Really reads like a soap opera

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Sidelined, not silenced.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-printerfr...-10983741c.html

Sidelined, not silenced

Stacy Johnson-Klein tells her side of a sports soap opera that riveted the Valley.

By Cyndee Fontana / The Fresno Bee

Soon after Stacy Johnson-Klein arrived at Fresno State in spring 2002, it was obvious she would be a different kind of coach.

Glamorous hair. Three-inch heels. A wardrobe more fashionable — and form-fitting — than usually seen on the sideline of a women's basketball game.

Over nearly three seasons, Johnson-Klein became the face of the basketball program and a darling of billboards, commercials and magazine spreads. And the basketball team did something it hadn't done much of before.

It won.

By last fall, Johnson-Klein had been voted best sports personality by Fresno Magazine readers and her team was off to a near-flawless start.

But there was trouble building beneath the surface, everyone now agrees. In February, Johnson-Klein was suspended, and in March, she would be spectacularly and publicly fired by California State University, Fresno.

After a three-week university investigation, the coach so embraced by the community was labeled by President John Welty as someone who lied and also "inappropriately obtained pain medications from students and staff," engaged in "deceptive and improper" financial practices and defied orders by contacting players during the inquiry.

Separately, some athletes and assistants described her as a moody, largely absentee coach more concerned with her own self-promotion than with the team itself.

Johnson-Klein, who said little during her suspension and after her termination, now has a lot to say. In a wide-ranging interview with The Bee, she gave her version of a story that has gripped Fresno and the Valley like a soap opera.

Johnson-Klein admits taking Vicodin from a player, calling that "a poor decision." She acknowledges instilling "healthy fear" in her players and chalks up absences to pregnancy and motherhood, recruiting and a decision to turn over pre- and postseason workouts to assistants.

She says jealousy and misunderstanding — even mutiny — played roles in her termination. But most of all, she says, the university fired her because of her complaints about sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and inequities between men's and women's basketball programs ranging from differences in athletic trainers to the assignment of parking spaces.

Warren Paboojian, Johnson-Klein's lawyer, calls the university's investigation and report incomplete, unprofessional and far from independent.

The women's basketball team shrugged off distractions to win seven games and lose four after Johnson-Klein's suspension. Overall, the Bulldogs went 20-11 and picked up a postseason berth in the Women's National Invitation Tournament, losing 56-53 to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday.

Publicly, several players lobbied for assistant coach Adrian Wiggins, a Johnson-Klein protégé, to replace her permanently. Privately, Johnson-Klein fumed that she wasn't getting credit for the success of the team handed to Wiggins.

Wednesday, he got her old job for another year.

Whatever happens next for the women's basketball team, it seems likely the case involving its former coach will be settled on a different court — a legal one. Paboojian promises to file a lawsuit against the university. If that happens, athletes, coaches and campus administrators could be swearing to tell the truth about Fresno State athletics and the woman with the Oklahoma twang who craved attention for her basketball program — and got it.

Though Johnson-Klein is one of a handful of people willing to speak, her lawyer limits some topics and permits guarded responses to some questions. University officials, citing the threat of a lawsuit, declined to produce anyone associated with the investigation for interviews. Campus officials have not responded to a March 4 request by The Bee to release the full investigative report and other documents.

Paboojian has given The Bee parts of the report but resisted releasing everything out of "respect for student-athletes" and to protect his case.

Many different stories emerge from pieces of the report, past university statements and roughly a dozen interviews.

Clearly, Johnson-Klein at first seemed part of a new vanguard in an athletic department bruised by past gender-equity complaints and embroiled in an NCAA investigation into possible rules violations in men's basketball. Legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian had just accepted a forced retirement; new men's basketball coach Ray Lopes preceded Johnson-Klein's hiring by a few days in April 2002.

For Johnson-Klein, the courtship by Fresno State was quick and aggressive. Johnson-Klein, who once scored a record 45 points in one game for Northeastern State in Oklahoma, wanted to move up from an assistant coaching job at perennial powerhouse Louisiana Tech. The Stigler, Okla., native already had interviews scheduled at Oklahoma State when then-Fresno State athletic director Scott Johnson began a "full-court press."

Johnson-Klein needed some persuasion. The Fresno State team played in the small North Gym; other Western Athletic Conference teams had arenas. She wasn't sure she could pass up a chance to return to Oklahoma, where her then-fiancé, Chuck Klein, lived along with his three boys.

But she looked at plans for the Save Mart Center, then under construction. She saw the athleticism and talent of the existing Fresno State team. She heard promises of financial support. And she figured she could win here rather than struggle for years at Big 12 Conference doormat Oklahoma State.

To hear Johnson-Klein tell it, she had the job even before she set foot in Fresno. The contract was hammered out via fax between her lawyer and the school; it included bonus incentives for attendance and academic goals.

In Fresno, Johnson-Klein says that she was told to keep quiet as she walked through an interview process for a job she already had. Now-former athletic director Johnson declined to be interviewed for this story.

That first year, Johnson-Klein says, the athletic director "paraded me to anything and everything he could." Before long, she says, she felt pitted against some other women coaching at Fresno State.

Lindy Vivas, who plans to file a lawsuit over the university's decision not to renew her contract as women's volleyball coach, says she had a neutral relationship with Johnson-Klein. But she adds: "It was very clear that the administration was creating different factions and camps of people and pitting them against each other."

Once in Fresno, Johnson-Klein assembled her staff — including Wiggins — and prepped a strategy to revamp a program that won only nine games the previous season. Johnson-Klein, who played abroad, says a key component was finding international recruits.

"That was huge because I knew the strength they bring in, just the pure intellect," she says. "Their 19-year-old wisdom is far different — usually — from an American 19-year-old because they're so responsible and mature."

One recruiting trip to Australia and China haunts her now. In the university's executive summary of its investigation, officials criticized her for a July 2002 trip to China described as a $1,753 "family vacation" billed to Fresno State.

Jeannine Raymond, vice president for administration and director of human resources, wrote that an assistant coach informed Johnson-Klein the tournament she planned to attend in China had been canceled. But Johnson-Klein went anyway and told the assistant not to tell the other staff members.

Johnson-Klein agrees with some bare facts but offers another version. In mid-2002, she says, the country was buzzing over the arrival of 7-foot, 5-inch Yao Ming in the National Basketball Association. Johnson-Klein wanted to recruit in his home country after a trip through Australia. She says she planned to attend a major tournament in China but also knew smaller tournaments were scheduled. She says she didn't need a big tournament to find players.

She could visit gyms, follow leads and "cold call." Even so, Johnson-Klein says she looked into dumping the China leg after the major tournament evaporated and an assistant faced an increasingly hostile reaction from Chinese contacts "livid" over Yao's exit. But it was so close to the departure date that a change would have cost thousands more, she says.

The trip through Australia yielded current players Chantella Perera and Faith Probst, but Johnson-Klein came up empty in China.

During her interview at the university, Johnson-Klein says, Raymond didn't detail the allegation or give her a fair shot at explaining the trip — a running defense offered by her and her lawyer.

Johnson-Klein acknowledges telling an assistant not to discuss the travel plans with a secretary, but says the instruction was aimed at heading off any potential jealousy within the department. She also says the trip was approved by Johnson, that it withstood later audits and that Johnson himself suggested that Chuck Klein accompany her given the post-9/11 climate of international travel. No children traveled with them, she says.

Johnson-Klein returned to the United States oblivious that any fuse to her termination had been lit. One of her next ventures had nothing to do with basketball — she was ready to transform a three-year relationship with Klein into a wedding ceremony.

The Aug. 11 service had a Fresno State connection. The couple married at President Welty's university-owned house in front of 150 people.

Wedding photos posted on the university Web site show the couple, the bridegroom's "Bulldog" cake and Johnson-Klein with players from her team.

Johnson-Klein says the couple was promoting the family aspect of Fresno State. She didn't mind using herself to draw attention to women's basketball, saying there are NCAA limits on opportunities for student-athletes and that any recognition she drew reflected on players.

Some saw it differently in the end. One student told university investigators: "We feel like she is promoting herself. It's all about her, not about the team."

Johnson-Klein says the team had no marketing budget. In the 2001-2002 season, the team averaged about 550 fans at home games. It needed more boosters and donors.

Johnson-Klein picked up a list of civic organizations and sent out the troops to spark interest in the program. Players visited homes and businesses to pitch season tickets.

"One day," she says, "we spent three hours and came back and didn't sell one."

But on the next trip, they sold 20 season tickets. They sold 100 the next time out. At a few home games, Johnson-Klein says, the gym was so packed that the fire marshal intervened.

"The crazy thing is I had to go to Sam's Club that day of the [first] game and buy Pepsi to sell at the concession stands," she says.

Booster clubs typically run concessions for North Gym events. After Johnson-Klein arrived, the old booster club dissolved and a new one was formed around the start of 2003.

Her husband and her secretary, Doris Bettencourt, helped work concessions all season, she says.

"The first night, we had hot dogs, and our own people came in and shut us down because we didn't have the right license," Johnson-Klein says. "... I complained about it. I didn't understand, why do the men's basketball fans get hot dogs and ours don't?"

She was beginning to notice inequities between the men's and women's programs, she says, and thought her staff was working hard not just at basketball, but at everything else.

"We were again doing things that were uncharacteristic of any staff," she says. "When we walked into our office, we didn't have computers, we didn't have a desk. We had overstuffed couches and TVs and boom boxes, and the place had been a hang-out place ...

"So it was just pandemonium for six or eight months, and I felt like they needed to be rewarded."

She says she heard that football coach Pat Hill had arranged bonuses for his assistants. So Johnson-Klein asked for Christmas bonuses for her five staff members, including Bettencourt. She says the request was only partially granted; until the university released its report, she believed only three bonuses were handed out.

Johnson-Klein says she didn't ask for a bonus because she simply earned a higher salary — then a minimum of $120,000, with thousands more available in bonuses for well-attended games, student academic performance, televised games and more. She says she asked the three assistants who she believed received bonuses to pitch in for the two other staff members.

Johnson-Klein says she remembers giving Bettencourt a $1,000 bonus and cash to another staff member. As for what the other coaches did, Johnson-Klein says: "I have no idea."

Bettencourt confirms receiving a bonus in 2002 but will say little else. Bettencourt, who says she lost her job in January, says she may hire a lawyer to explore legal action against the university.

The situation with the Christmas bonuses and their distribution is painted as an "egregious violation" in the university's investigation. According to the executive summary, Johnson-Klein misrepresented the reason for the bonuses and engineered a plan to deduct cash from an unstated number of assistant coaches' checks.

She told them she couldn't approve a bonus for herself, according to the summary, so "she had their checks issued in larger amounts and she would take some of theirs. Assistant coaches were coerced into going along with her scheme to create a bonus for herself or (another employee) by skimming money off of their Christmas bonus checks."

The report stated that it was not conclusively proved that Johnson-Klein kept part of the bonus money. Johnson-Klein, however, smarts over the suggestion that she arm-twisted assistants or connected them to the bank to ensure that money was deducted from checks.

"I found it very interesting that it's 2005, and this has never been discussed or brought to my attention until this happened," says Johnson-Klein.

While the men's team performed well at the start of the 2002-03 season, the women's basketball team also was having one of its best seasons.

Johnson-Klein and the team christened 2003 with a win in Fresno over Rice University. Another noisy crowd — this one numbering more than 1,000 — packed the North Gym to watch a team defying preseason predictions of mediocrity. Fans learned the new coach was part of the show, too.

They watched Coach K — as Johnson-Klein was called — prowl the sidelines in heels and pound her shoes when she wanted players' attention. The stomp was more effective than yelling because her voice did not carry well. As a result, however, she says she broke shoes and suffered near stress fractures in her feet.

Johnson-Klein says that January, she began taking prescription and nonprescription medication for the pain in her feet after games. She says she continued through the end of the season, March 26.

A doctor approved the prescription medication for her, her attorney says, and Johnson-Klein adds that she didn't take it every day.

On the sideline, Johnson-Klein was building an image. Fans in the stands held up signs asking for the "Coach K Stomp," and she kept stomping.

After the firing, Fresno State said in its executive summary: "Klein has been heard asking for pain medication from as early as 2002." The summary doesn't say who heard Johnson-Klein asking or her circumstances at those times.

Today, she does not comment about this on the advice of her attorney.

That first season, it turns out, was Johnson-Klein's high point at Fresno State. The team went 21-13 — one victory shy of matching the program record for wins — and advanced to the third round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament, losing in the quarterfinals to Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Fresno State had last played a postseason game in 1990.

Hundreds of fans responded to the turnaround, and home attendance skyrocketed; average crowds nearly tripled. The North Gym was sold out five times.

It was a good year, on the court at least, for the Fresno State men's basketball team, as well. It soared above preseason predictions, achieving a 20-8 record and winning the regular season championship of the Western Athletic Conference.

But the season ended with a thud when Welty in March said the team couldn't go to any postseason tournaments. One month earlier, a story in The Bee detailed allegations of academic fraud involving the men's program. The NCAA later placed the program on probation for four years.

Unlike fellow first-year coach Ray Lopes, Johnson-Klein had no scandal to deal with. In fact, several players earned athletic and academic awards.

Johnson-Klein's performance review in June 2003 noted all these facts. She scored mostly 4s and 5s on a 5-point employee evaluation scale that graded her performance in 41 different areas. Her lowest score: a 2 for marginally communicating effectively with other coaches and staff members.

Written comments from associate athletic director Randy Welniak, who did the evaluation, were largely favorable, though he raised some concerns.

He noted that she became frustrated at some decisions in the department. Welniak also wrote: "I would recommend that Stacy focus on her program and limit her concerns with the funding or treatment of other programs within the Athletic Department."

Johnson-Klein replied in a June 11, 2003, memo to Welniak that she was surprised and disappointed by the criticism of not respecting administrative decisions. But she said she welcomed advice on how to build camaraderie in the department.

Johnson-Klein also looked forward to something more personal: She was pregnant.

The last weeks of the pregnancy overlapped with the start of practices for the 2003-2004 season. The timing illustrated the juggling act confronting Johnson-Klein, who gave birth to Tristan Benjamin Oct. 23 and was back working in a week. The upcoming season would not be easy.

Recapturing the magic of the first season was difficult. Key players had graduated. Expectations were higher. Johnson-Klein says that she took six weeks of maternity leave but still went in four or five hours a day around practices.

She opted not to go to meetings, however, and she believes this is when the perception began that she shirked her coaching responsibilities.

Fresno State played its opening game Nov. 21 against Washington State University and lost 69-51. It was a harbinger of things to come: The team went 7-11 in league play and finished 13-16 overall. Fresno State hosted the WAC Tournament in March, and the women exited quickly after a 79-55 thrashing by Tulsa University.

Johnson-Klein says she was grateful her team got as many victories as it did: "I just didn't feel like we'd win five games … I felt so thankful to just win 13 because we just didn't have much talent." She'd been fortunate that first season. The second was more typical for a new coach taking over a struggling program, she says.

Her fortune was about to change in other ways, too.

After the season, she started losing staff. Two assistants and the team's director of operations quit at different times.

Then in early April 2004, as Johnson-Klein and her husband returned from the college basketball women's Final Four championship in New Orleans, they got in a wreck coming off the interstate in Oklahoma City.

An extended-cab pickup ran a red light, and in a chain-reaction accident, their red Yukon sport utility vehicle broadsided a van towing a trailer, Johnson-Klein says.

Tristan and Johnson-Klein's daughter, Sierra, also were in the Yukon.

Johnson-Klein says she injured her shoulder and her doctor prescribed a painkiller. She says she had taken no pain medication in the four or five months after Tristan's birth because she was breast-feeding.

"I wouldn't even drink a Coke or take an aspirin," Johnson-Klein says.

In spring 2004, however, she was talking about pain pills and how she'd read how many pills would constitute a problem, according to the university's report.

Wiggins interpreted what she said as "an indication that she had at least thought she might have a problem," the report states.

Johnson-Klein told The Bee she does not remember making that statement: "I have no idea what he's talking about."

In another passage, the report was even more blunt about Wiggins' suspicions: "He suspects she is abusing pain medication."

Paboojian says that he showed university officials a statement from a doctor who began treating Johnson-Klein after the April 2004 car accident. In it, the doctor stated he was "unaware of any facts which would indicate that she is abusing any type of pain medication that I have prescribed."

Wiggins will not say today whether he reported his suspicions to anyone or whether he talked to Johnson-Klein about them.

"What you want is the truth and it will come out in the investigation or in a court situation if there is a court situation," he says. "I have no problem telling the truth when I'm asked."

Johnson-Klein bristles at Wiggins' suspicion: "I would like to know how or why he suspected that. If anyone thought I was in trouble or had a situation, why didn't one person mention it to me, bring it to my attention, ask me if I were OK, ask me if I had a problem…?

"Not one coach, not one administrator, trainer, no one that I was ever around ever asked me."

Johnson-Klein and Wiggins had a working relationship going back to Cameron University in Lawton, Okla. She coached at the Division II school from 1997-2000 and hired Wiggins as her assistant.

Johnson-Klein says her husband, who deals in real estate, bought Wiggins' house in Lawton so Wiggins and his family could move to Fresno.

Johnson-Klein says she feels betrayed by Wiggins' statements in the media, which included his plans to leave Fresno State before she was suspended. Wiggins replies: "I feel truly sorry for her. She has things she has to deal with as a human being."

Throughout her employment and particularly in 2004, Johnson-Klein says, she talked about gender equity. In the arena of Title IX, the law requiring parity between men's and women's sports, she says the proper comparisons are between women's basketball and men's basketball.

In a June 2004 memo, Johnson-Klein emphasized: "In building our women's basketball program it is imperative that we receive the same respect in marketing that the men's basketball program receives."

She complained that the women's program got less money for student/temp help than men's basketball. A few months later, she expressed concern that the team's athletic trainer — while performing well and learning rapidly — lacked the credentials of her counterpart on the men's team.

" ... The bottom line for us is we are not afforded the same support staff as the men in the athletic training department. I have always had this concern and have voiced my opinion concerning the matter, but it has never been more glaring than now," she wrote in an Oct. 25 memo to Johnson and Welniak.

As practices began, Johnson-Klein was publicly confident of winning. Perera, the recruit from Australia, and Amy Parrish, a Valley star from Hanford, anchored the team.

Less public was the growing friction between her and her immediate supervisor, associate athletic director Welniak. In October, Johnson-Klein says, the two met to discuss a photo submitted to Welniak for use in the team's media guide booklet.

She says Welniak didn't think the photo was appropriate and she agreed: "It just had more cleavage than I would ever put in the media guide." Johnson-Klein says that she wanted to use only a "head shot" from the picture, but it was delivered without alteration to Welniak.

Johnson-Klein says that she was alarmed when Welniak said in the meeting she shouldn't show "so much flesh." She told him she wanted a written dress code.

"I felt that it was important if he were ever going to speak with me about my clothing or anything about my body that there should be a female present and that I should have it in writing."

In Welniak's statement to the university's investigators, he said the meeting about the photo occurred Jan. 11.

Johnson-Klein says that Welniak had more conversations with her between October and January about how she dressed. He says that he talked to her in the fall about her "self promotion" taking attention away from the team.

Welniak won't comment to The Bee: "I'm not going to talk about anything regarding this story because of potential litigation."

He will not even hear questions.

"I don't even want to go there," he says.

According to the executive summary prepared by Raymond, there was no evidence to support Johnson-Klein's allegation of harassment — presumably about Welniak's questions over her wardrobe choices. Johnson-Klein and Paboojian say they declined to discuss harassment complaints when she was interviewed after her suspension.

Johnson-Klein started to wonder about her future at Fresno State. Just before the 2004 season, Johnson-Klein says that she approached Johnson about her contract. She talked about Lopes' recent lucrative extension and told Johnson: "I think if I win 20 games, I deserve the same thing."

She says that Johnson "laughed about it and said we would be talking about it at the end of the year, and he really wanted Adrian Wiggins to be the next head coach."

Johnson-Klein says that the remark left her heartbroken and "bum-fuzzled." Johnson tried to explain, according to her, that he meant Wiggins could step in after she moved on to a bigger program.

She was disappointed and hurt.

The team rocketed to a 10-1 start in November and December, but tensions simmered that tore at the relationships between Johnson-Klein, on one side, and her assistant coaches and players, on the other.

Johnson-Klein says that she was concerned about fraternization between assistant coaches Drew Champagne and Calamity McEntire with student-athletes and, in McEntire's case, another coach, at Fresno State. Both Champagne and McEntire vehemently denied to The Bee that they had any improper relationships.

A November fight between three players and other students also created problems, Johnson-Klein says. She found out about the incident three or four days later and was angry she wasn't told earlier.

Johnson-Klein slapped a monthlong 9 p.m. curfew on the entire team as punishment. Players accepted it, and there was no bad blood over the discipline, says junior player Toni Atherley: "… We respected it."

Next came an incident involving player Parrish, her car and Ja'Vance Coleman, star of the men's basketball team. According to court records and Parrish, Coleman was ticketed for speeding on Highway 198, and Parrish's car was impounded.

Versions of the story then diverge. Johnson-Klein says, based on what Parrish told her, that the incident was more serious than a speeding violation. Parrish says that Coleman might have jokingly made it sound worse when he first told Parrish but she was unhappy that Johnson-Klein talked about it with others.

Coleman could not be reached to comment.

Parrish says the incident might have been a small part of the team feeling negative about Johnson-Klein. Atherley disagrees: "I really don't have any idea what happened with Amy and the whole car situation with Ja'Vance. But no, I don't think the team got mad about that or the curfew."

Thomas E. Granata, a clinical psychologist who works in the area of sports psychology, teaches part time at Fresno State and has a clinical practice, says effective coaches establish healthy relationships with players by being consistent and predictable, setting clear and fair limits, and showing that the team's needs come before the coach's.

Granata says he is speaking generally about coach-player dynamics and is not commenting specifically about Johnson-Klein.

He adds that teams can splinter when players form alliances with either the head coach or assistant coaches and the two sides square off against each other, and that this happens when the coaching staff is not unified.

"You know, I'm understanding now what was happening," Johnson-Klein says today. "My team was beginning to somewhat unravel."

She described a "good cop, bad cop" approach to coaching in which she was the heavy to Wiggins' nice guy. Her "up front, no miss" policy required athletes to attend class and sit in the front row. If anyone missed class, the team could expect to run five miles the next morning.

She demanded respect for herself and others. No "do-rags" in public. No baseball caps in class. No gum at practice. She doesn't think that the rules were onerous, nor that it was unreasonable to ask players to carry some luggage in the airport — though some players later complained.

Johnson-Klein says she needed help because she often traveled with her infant son and young daughter. She says that players never complained when she asked them to carry bags and that she never walked through an airport empty-handed.

Johnson-Klein says that she believes routine discipline, unspoken resentment and individual flare-ups amounted to more than she realized at the time. She says that she tried to shield her team and coaches from her problems with the administration and chronic budget cuts.

But several players told university investigators they would leave if Johnson-Klein continued as coach. Some said they feared retaliation if she was reinstated.

Retired coach Leon Barmore of Louisiana Tech, who employed Johnson-Klein as an assistant for two years, says that she was never a mean person: "You have to be strict. You have to discipline. You have to demand. What coach doesn't?"

Johnson-Klein says that she pushed ahead in the fall of 2004 with complaints about unequal treatment for the women's basketball program. She talked to a consultant who was brought on campus to talk to coaches and athletes about gender equity.

The university won't confirm his presence, but several other employees say they talked to the consultant and believed he was employed by Fresno State or the California State University system.

Johnson-Klein told the consultant her team needed the same type of full-time, certified athletic trainer assigned to the men's team.

She complained that the men's basketball office has a Pepsi machine while the women's office didn't and that parking spaces were not equitably assigned to coaches. Johnson-Klein says that she wasn't comfortable telling the consultant everything and also says she is not telling The Bee all of her complaints.

She says that soon after talking to the consultant, she met with Raymond, vice president for administration and director of human resources. Raymond later was part of the team that conducted the investigation prompting Johnson-Klein's dismissal.

Johnson-Klein says that she told Raymond she was tired of hearing that male athletic administrators were discussing her physique in meetings. She also told Raymond: "I don't want to be a whistle-blower."

In the university's report, Raymond acknowledged meeting with Johnson-Klein the first week in November. She said they discussed "several issues of concern," including a staff position, the Pepsi machine and parking spaces. All were addressed or resolved in Johnson-Klein's favor, Raymond writes.

Raymond could not be reached to comment.

Johnson-Klein says that within 24 hours of the meeting with Raymond, she received a call from associate athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois. She says that Reed-Francois told her Raymond reported the conversation to Welty and portrayed her as "a loose cannon."

Reed-Francois declined to comment, saying it would be "irresponsible" to do so because of a possible lawsuit.

According to the university report, problems seemed to snowball around midseason. One incident involved player Angelica Lopez, who became ill on a pre-Christmas road trip to New York.

Lopez declined two interview requests by The Bee. According to the investigation and previous news accounts, Lopez twice passed out after receiving a pill from Johnson-Klein's husband.

Assistant coach Champagne told The Bee that Lopez later asked to go to a hospital, and the team's three assistant coaches agreed. But Johnson-Klein overruled an immediate trip and had the bus stop first at Macy's.

Johnson-Klein's version is different: Lopez had been vomiting and was sick, but came to the basketball game. She was attended to by the team trainer and a medical doctor. Johnson-Klein says that the doctor told her that Lopez would be fine just drinking Gatorade and didn't require a visit to the emergency room.

According to Johnson-Klein, there was no emergency. She says that if there had been, the trainer or doctor would have taken Lopez to the hospital by cab.

The pill Lopez took, according to Johnson-Klein, was ibuprofen and it did not cause her to faint.

She says that the team trainer wanted to take Lopez to the emergency room for fluids. After the game, the team returned to the hotel and Lopez was among those who went up to their rooms, changed and returned to the bus.

Johnson-Klein, who is unfamiliar with New York, asked the bus driver whether it was easier to take Lopez to the hospital or drop off the team for dinner. He told her it made no difference, she says, and the team first was taken to Macy's — a drop-off point because of its size. The team rode the subway back to the hotel.

Says Paboojian: "The fact that it [the bus] was diverted for 10 or 15 minutes when there's no life-threatening situation. ... Maybe it sounds bad, but it's been blown out of so much proportion."

At the end of January, Johnson-Klein's relationship with Welniak worsened. He weighed in on several sideline outfits and objected to a HIS magazine photo that pictured her in a lacy camisole and furlike wrap. She was offended that he made a specific reference to her breast.

Johnson-Klein says that she was "boiling" over at Welniak's comments and went directly to the office of Reed-Francois to complain.

Reed-Francois assured Johnson-Klein, according to the former coach, that she would talk to both Johnson and Welniak. The university report noted that Reed-Francois had told Johnson-Klein that she "did not have any problem with the attire in the photos that Welniak was questioning."

A few days later, the team left for Reno by bus for a game against the University of Nevada on Jan. 29. Welniak was calling Johnson-Klein to make a change in travel plans, and she says she wasn't calling back because she was upset about their last meeting.

Reed-Francois confirmed in the university report that Johnson-Klein was not annoyed about not being permitted to stay in Reno an extra day.

On Jan. 30, still upset with Welniak, Johnson-Klein sent an e-mail to Johnson in which she also mentioned Johnson's wish to have Wiggins as head coach.

She wrote: "My authority is undermined and disrespected, Scott, and I don't know where to turn without causing problems. I was hired to do a job and you knew exactly who you were getting. Now I am told I misrepresent the University, that my clothing is inappropriate? There is lace on my chest, etc.? Are you kidding me?

"This is harassment I do not wish to deal with from a male supervisor anymore. I have complained and talked about how inappropriate those conversations are to me and the mental stress it adds to my life … I am now fearful I will be retaliated against if I make a big deal of this. ..."

Welniak said in the university report that he believes "what really triggered" Johnson-Klein's Jan. 30 e-mail was anger over having to return to Fresno a day earlier than originally planned.

He also said another athletic administrator told him Jan. 30 that Wiggins has "concerns with things happening with the team."

Welniak and Wiggins met Jan. 31, and Wiggins gave Welniak the telephone numbers of former assistant coaches so that Welniak could contact them, according to the report. Champagne told The Bee that he informed university administrators about the Lopez incident on Jan. 31.

According to his statement to investigators, Johnson also met on Jan. 31 with Johnson-Klein, telling her he supported Welniak's authority to question her clothing. He said she asked that Reed-Francois become her supervisor.

Johnson-Klein says that no such meeting occurred. Both she and Johnson agree they met on Feb. 1.

Johnson-Klein left the next day on a road trip to Louisiana and Texas. She wrote Johnson another e-mail Feb. 4.

She thanked him for meeting with her and apologized for being so upset.

There were problems on the road trip. Before the Louisiana Tech game, Johnson-Klein was involved in a dispute over a restaurant bill.

Unhappy about the service provided those in the team's 27-member dinner party, she had them leave for a scheduled practice without paying the bill in full.

The owner of the restaurant and a police officer later met Johnson-Klein and settled the matter.

Fresno State lost the Louisiana Tech game 86-76, but Johnson-Klein called it the best effort of the season because of the team's aggressive play against a tough opponent.

Just after the game, she got into a confrontation with Louisiana Tech coach Kurt Budke, in which she reportedly shouted, "I hate my staff."

Johnson-Klein later said she wasn't referring to her current staff.

From Louisiana, the Bulldogs went on to Dallas to beat Southern Methodist, 70-62.

Then they flew home, but Johnson-Klein stayed over to recruit in Texas and Oklahoma. She returned to a brewing controversy.

On Feb. 7, athletic department officials met with players in Fresno to discuss problems on the team. Johnson-Klein says that one player told her that Welniak and Reed-Francois said they knew the coach did "something terrible" and added: "We can't tell you everything we know, but we want you to open up and tell us."

Player Jasmine Plummer says that administrators told the team members they were free to talk: "They didn't try to push something out of us or try to put words in our mouths or nothing. They just listened."

Players talked about being verbally attacked and of the coaching staff being "humiliated" in front of players, according to a summary of notes by Welniak and Reed-Francois in the report. The summary also said: "She told [players] on several occasions that 'she could be a bitch or she could be nice.' "

In an interview with The Bee, Plummer said she didn't fear Johnson-Klein: "She had her moments when she was like a tyrant, but I was never afraid of her personally."

On Feb. 8, Johnson met with Welty to discuss issues affecting the team.

The next day, when Johnson-Klein returned home, she was suspended.

For three weeks, Fresno television stations led their news programs with the Johnson-Klein story. The Bee regularly put it on the front page, and letters peppered the sports and editorial pages. At women's basketball games, some fans held up signs pleading for Johnson-Klein's reinstatement.

Each day seemed to bring a fresh detail. Television reporters quoted "sources" with information that Johnson-Klein's choice of sideline clothing was an issue in the suspension, and then reporters quoted sources about her alleged use of painkillers as a factor in the controversy.

Several assistant coaches, including Wiggins, said they already had planned to leave at the end of the season.

Wiggins initially said that he wasn't interested in the head coaching job.

As publicity mounted, university officials were busy interviewing assistant coaches — past and present — players, athletic department administrators and others.

Fresno State authorities interviewed Johnson-Klein on Feb. 22 and, according to the university report, conducted another two dozen interviews after that. Some were follow-up conversations.

Paboojian says the lack of a second interview with Johnson-Klein casts doubt on the investigation.

He complains that the university wouldn't allow a stenographer or tape recorder at her interview, and he criticizes the university's account of the meeting.

Johnson, then the athletic director, was interviewed at 7 a.m. Feb. 25, according to a university report.

Later that day, he announced that he would leave his post when his contract expired June 30.

He said his departure had nothing to do with the women's basketball situation.

Within days, the university appointed an interim athletic director.

On Feb. 28, according to Paboojian, the CSU Chancellor's Office offered Johnson-Klein the choice of resigning with no public release of the university's findings and without any severance package.

Johnson-Klein declined; she says that she still didn't know exactly what administrators thought she had done wrong.

She found out March 2.

At a news conference, Welty announced that he had begun the process to fire her and sifted through transgressions including an NCAA violation (for allowing a parent to stay in a player's room), the risk of other violations, unprofessional conduct, insubordination, lying and creation of a hostile work environment.

Paboojian and Johnson-Klein say they were caught somewhat by surprise.

They held a brief news conference to issue some denials and express disappointment at the decision.

A few days later, in response to media requests, the university released its executive summary of the investigation.

Johnson-Klein's first name is misspelled.

Other names — presumably those of students and coaches — are omitted. The report accused Johnson-Klein of 26 specific lapses of performance.

Among those are financial misdeeds such as charging a relative and friend's room to the athletic corporation and submitting improper reimbursement requests from Sunnyside Country Club.

In his statement, Welty said Johnson-Klein was "untruthful on numerous occasions during the investigation" such as in her portrayal of the China trip, whether she contacted students during the investigation and about an incident involving a change in the travel schedule.

One of the most damning charges involves player Perera and a bottle of Vicodin.

Johnson-Klein addresses this accusation but declines to talk about the university's other charges relating to pain medication.

She acknowledges asking for, and receiving, Vicodin that Perera had been prescribed after knee surgery.

The former coach says that her pain stemmed from injuries in last April's car accident, which she still hasn't had surgery to correct.

Perera "had already been back playing and I remember the day," Johnson-Klein says. "I was hurting really bad. My shoulder was hurting. My back was hurting. I was out of my prescription at the office. I didn't have time to go home or try to get to the doctor, and I just recalled her having those and thought, you know what, now I look at it as a poor decision.

"It's the poorest decision I think I made. I feel terrible about doing that. But I called her and asked her if she had any left that I would like to have a painkiller."

Johnson-Klein insists that she exerted no pressure on Perera and that she took only one pill.

She says that she threw away the bottle after asking Perera, who said she no longer needed them.

The university report described the incident as a "serious concern regardless of how many pills were used."

Perera previously has declined to speak about the incident.

Beyond acknowledging the situation involving Perera, Johnson-Klein and Paboojian deny allegations within the report or say they are blown out of proportion.

They say charges of financial misdeeds are ironic given that Johnson-Klein's personal services contract provided a $10,000 expense account.

She denies that her "poor judgment" resulted in the NCAA violation. Johnson-Klein says that she encouraged a parent to spend time with her daughter but did not know she would stay in the room.

Johnson-Klein acknowledges calling two players and sending out a group e-mail days after her suspension and after being ordered by Welty not to contact athletes or coaches.

She says that she didn't understand what was happening and how harshly those contacts would be described in the university's report.

In the end, Paboojian says, the university simply didn't investigate her side.

Diane Milutinovich, former associate athletic director who filed a lawsuit after her position was eliminated and she was reassigned to the Student Union, says that the university did not seem to counsel Johnson-Klein before firing her: "It does not appear that her supervisors provided advice and leadership to help her be a more effective teacher, coach and employee."

Publicly, at least, the university's explanation for Johnson-Klein's termination seemed to deflate community support.

Christopher David Ruiz Cameron, associate dean and professor of law at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, examined the executive summary at The Bee's request.

He called it extraordinary: "It's unusual for any employer to be so candid about the reasons for an employee's termination."

Cameron, who teaches employee law and sports law, calls the report "balanced in some ways and intemperate in others."

He theorized that "the university was very sensitive to getting out ahead of the publicity curve regarding a community celebrity and that trumped their concerns for getting conservative legal advice."

Of the executive summary, Cameron adds: "There's enough material in here for two episodes of 'Desperate Housewives.' ... I think it's fair to say that no one comes out looking particularly good."

Few may enjoy a Hollywood ending in this drama.

Wednesday, Wiggins was named interim head coach through the 2005-06 season.

The Bulldogs lost their basketball game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday. The season is over.

Thursday, men's basketball coach Ray Lopes resigned after admitting he committed violations of NCAA rules with telephone calls to recruits.

With the basketball team already on probation from Tarkanian-era sins, the latest violations make the program a repeat offender.

If the NCAA determines the latest infraction is major, Fresno State could face the death penalty — the complete elimination of men's basketball competition for one or two years.

Johnson-Klein watched the live broadcast of Lopes' resignation on television at her home. Her lawyer would not allow her to comment.

Paboojian says that a wrongful termination lawsuit could be filed within a few months.

He already is battling the university over the amount due on her last paycheck.

Next week, Johnson-Klein will undergo surgery to repair injuries from the April 2004 accident.

She says she plans to remain in Fresno to "make sure that the truth comes out ... and to finish this lawsuit."

Johnson-Klein also says she wants to coach again, but talks about a "cloud of uncertainty" around her.

"I'm going to apply for positions, and if someone offers me a coaching job, I'll take it," she says. "But I understand this industry.

"It's a small world."