Judge dismisses some claims in lawsuit filed by former Vegas PBS employee

A federal judge this month dismissed some claims in a lawsuit filed by a former Vegas PBS employee while allowing one claim involving accusations directed at the station’s GM to proceed.

Terry Chi, a former director of digital marketing for the station, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Nevada in October 2024. Chi worked for Vegas PBS from February 2022 until June 2024, when the station did not renew her contract.

In her lawsuit, Chi alleged that she faced discrimination and retaliation as an employee and sought several avenues of relief, including reinstatement to her former position. Chi is Asian and has a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the lawsuit.

Chi’s lawsuit listed as defendants Vegas PBS GM Mary Mazur; the Clark County School District, which holds Vegas PBS’ license; Cedric Cole, formerly executive manager of diversity and affirmative action programs and ADA and Title IX Coordinator for the school district but currently an assistant human resources officer; former Superintendent Jesús Jara; former interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell; and Southern Nevada Public Television, the nonprofit friends group associated with Vegas PBS.

Chi first filed a discrimination complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission in September 2023. The NERC sent Chi a right-to-sue notice in September 2024 that enabled her to take her claims to court.

The defendants sought to dismiss 10 of the suit’s 16 claims earlier this year, with their attorneys calling Chi’s lawsuit “a running list of perceived slights and petty grievances against the various Defendants (as well as non-parties), that are entirely irrelevant and do not amount to any violation of law.”

On Aug. 5, U.S. District Judge Cristina D. Silva dismissed with prejudice Chi’s request to be reinstated to her former position and her claim that the school district was negligent in hiring Mazur. Silva also dismissed Jara and Larsen-Mitchell from the lawsuit.

In addition, the judge dismissed two claims alleging race-based discrimination and race-based retaliation committed by Mazur, deeming them duplicative of other claims in the suit. The claims against the school district as a defendant continue.

Silva dismissed without prejudice Chi’s claim against all of the defendants of unlawful conspiracy to deny her of her civil rights, noting that it is not enough to simply claim that the alleged parties to the conspiracy knew of each other and that a plaintiff has to present facts showing that the defendants reached an agreement to conduct a conspiracy. Dismissed without prejudice means a claim can be reframed and refiled.

Silvia dismissed without prejudice Chi’s claim of sex discrimination, finding that Chi did not exhaust her administrative remedies for the claim, and a claim that Mazur and the school district intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon her.

“Chi relies on volume, noting that discipline was repeated, that Mazur repeatedly solicited false accusations against Chi, that defendants repeatedly ‘claimed to believe allegations’ against Chi,” Silva wrote. But Silva added that “the record does not support Chi’s claim that there was a repeated pattern of soliciting false allegations against her. Further, there is nothing extreme or outrageous about Mazur and CCSD repeatedly ‘claiming to believe’ allegedly false statements about Chi, even if they were untrue. I find that Chi has simply not alleged enough to sufficiently establish extreme and outrageous conduct.”

A motion by the defendants to dismiss a claim alleging Chi’s First Amendment rights were interfered with met with mixed results. Silva granted a motion to dismiss Cole without prejudice from the claim but denied one to dismiss Mazur.

Chi’s lawsuit argues that she had complained about Mazur having a pattern of terminating people of color from Vegas PBS management and “financial improprieties” associated with Mazur hiring an outside contractor using funds secured from SNPT.

“Chi has sufficiently alleged a claim against Mazur regarding ‘financial improprieties’ that arose out of the hiring of expensive outside contractors,” Silva wrote. “Although the claim of financial impropriety appears only loosely tethered to the factual record, at this stage of the litigation I cannot find that this speech, which Chi made to members outside the office, was not a matter of public concern.”

Silva deemed that Chi’s suit makes no specific allegations against Cole regarding her First Amendment claims, but the dismissal leaves Chi room to amend her suit to levy additional accusations against Cole.

An attorney representing Mazur, Cole and Larsen-Mitchell directed questions to the Clark County School District communication department. A spokesperson for the district said it does not comment on pending litigation.

In an emailed statement to Current, Paul Larsen, an attorney representing SNPT, said, “We are pleased that the Federal Court saw fit to dismiss claim 13 (the conspiracy allegation), inter alia, which was the only claim against SNPT in Ms. Chi’s complaint, as we agreed with the Court that Ms. Chi had not stated facts that established a conspiracy as a matter of law.”

The defendants did not challenge several claims made in Chi’s original lawsuit, including accusations of unlawful retaliation, age discrimination and unlawful employment discrimination due to disability.

Chi’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The new deadline to complete discovery for the case is Dec. 26, according to a scheduling order on the case docket.