Ex-social worker Eric Bahra will keep a $2.5 million payout from the county after he was fired for disclosing an issue with San Bernardino County’s child welfare practices, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled Nov. 27.
“I think it’s important that employers recognize that when they retaliate against people who are working in the best interests of their community, there is a high price to pay,” said Bahra’s co-counsel, A. Cabral Bonner of Law Offices of Bonner & Bonner.
San Bernardino County Spokesperson David Wert has not yet replied to Follow Our Court’s request for comment.
Bahra filed his federal complaint Aug. 17, 2016. He argued he was retaliated against, and ultimately fired, for reporting 19 cases in which the county’s social workers placed children in the foster home of a known abuser.
His amended complaint brought 12 claims, including intrusion on his right to free speech, wrongful termination, invasion of privacy, defamation, violation of California’s Whistleblower Protection Act and retaliation.
After a seven-day trial, an eight-person jury ruled in his favor Oct. 14, 2021. The jury found that he disclosed a systematic failure in the operation of the county’s database that resulted in children being placed in the home of known abusers, and that his disclosure of this information was a contributing factor to his termination.
The jury awarded Bahra $503,000 in past economic damages and $2 million in past non-economic loss.
San Bernardino County appealed the $2 million, arguing that it was grossly excessive.
The Ninth Circuit, however, found that it was appropriate.
“As a result of the County’s retaliation, Bahra developed stomach pains, headaches, and shortness of breath; gained weight; stopped maintaining his hygiene; fell into depression; felt shame and humiliation; and experienced significant financial hardship. Bahra had not found work as a child-dependency social worker by the time of trial, and he sometimes still felt ‘upset and agitated and depressed.’ The record therefore clearly supports an award for emotional distress,” the Ninth Circuit’s unpublished opinion said.
The county argued that case law established in the 2021 case Briley v. City of West Covina capped the award at $1 million, unless emotional distress caused substantial physical problems.
The Ninth Circuit said that Briley did not set forth any such categorical rule. Instead, it decided that each case must be decided on its own facts, the ruling said.
The County also argued that the $2 million award was due to jury prejudice established in a portion of Bahra’s closing argument that touched on child abuse. The County did not object to that portion of the closing argument at the time it was made, however, and the County lost its claim to object on appeal. The Ninth Circuit also said that discussions of child abuse were inevitable in Bahra’s case.
Bahra’s amended complaint says that he was employed as a social worker investigating child abuse from 2011 to 2013.
On June 25, 2013, Bahra found 19 instances where social workers placed children in the home of a person known by social workers to abuse the children placed in his care, according to his complaint. He reported the discovery to his manager, Kristine Burgamy.
Burgamy, as well as Deputy Director Nickola Hackett, were co-defendants along with San Bernardino County in Bahra’s case. The causes against them were dismissed before trial, but neither are still employed at the County.
Burgamy asked Bahra if he had reported his findings to the police, and replied, “Good,” when Bahra said he had not, according to Bahra’s complaint.
The next day, Bahra said he found Burgamy and Hackett searching his desk. They told him to do no further investigation on what he had found, and ordered Bahra to turn over his investigative documents, according to his complaints.
Bahra’s supervisors then made false accusations to fire and discredit him, he argued. They claimed that he was discourteous to a supervisor, scheduled a coworker for calls without her permission, delegated work without the authority to do so, shared confidential statements from a 4-year-old to non-relatives and lied to law enforcement about seeing a minor’s pornographic photo. They made seven other fabricated claims, according to his complaint. Bahra challenged his termination, but lost and was formally fired Aug. 18, 2015.
“Mr. Bahra had a spotless record in his employment with the County, until he made the discovery in June 2013 that the system lacked safeguards which, in practice, allowed Social Workers to subject children to abuse by permitting them to place children in foster homes with known abusers,” his complaint says.
Bonner, Bahra’s attorney, said that Bahra was shut out of social worker jobs after he was fired.
Bonner said his supervisors prevented him from being trusted in a court of law. “He was basically accused of being a liar, and they fabricated this narrative of him being a person who lies about issues related to child dependency.”
Bahra switched from social services to medical care. He opened the mental health provider High Desert Psychological Services in 2019.
Bonner said that the County did not change their practices following Bahra’s case.
“At trial it came out that they had not yet made any substantial changes, which is shocking to me, given how clear the evidence was that it was their own practices that led to kids being placed in the homes of known abusers,” Bonner said.
Bonner said that he never learned about any other foster care providers that continued taking care of kids after being known to abuse them, because that information is confidential.
“We obviously believe this is happening in other situations but because of the records in child dependency, we would never be able to get that information,” Bonner said.
Case information
California Central District Judge Jesus Bernal presided over the case at trial.
Case No. 5:16-cv-01756
Ninth Circuit Judges Johnnie Rawlinson, Richard Clifton and Andrew Hurwitz reviewed the case.
Appellate Case No. 22-55931
Charles Bonner and A. Cabral Bonner of Sausalito’s Law Offices of Bonner and Bonner, and Victorville sole practitioner Valerie Ross represented Bahra.
Susan Coleman of Los Angeles’ Burke Williams & Sorensen and San Bernardino County Assistant Counsel Laura Feingold represented the County.
Read the amended complaint here.
Read the appellate ruling here.
