UCLA vice chancellor sues to block release of probe into allegations of bullying and misspending

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Set us as preferred More than a year of tensions inside the office that shapes UCLA’s public image spilled into a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday, as lawyers for a campus vice chancellor asked a judge to block the public release of an investigation into allegations from six employees that she bullied them or misused university funds.Vice Chancellor Mary Osako oversees UCLA’s vast communications and marketing enterprise, which includes more than 100 workers.The 264-page investigative report by an independent law firm was commissioned by the university in response to whistleblower complaints by current and former employees who alleged Osako mistreated staff and steered university contracts to friends and former colleagues in violation of university policy, court documents said.Separately from the whistleblower complaints, Osako’s chief of staff alleged in court filings that she faced retaliation after answering investigators’ questions.Osako, who remains on the job with the support of UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, has disputed many of the accusations and conclusions in the report.

She said in court documents that if the report is released, the harm to her reputation would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repair.” At a hearing Tuesday, Mark Quigley, a lawyer for employees who filed whistleblower complaints, told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Curtis A.Kin that the complaints were “very significant, very substantial.” Kin said he had not seen the document and was unable to make a decision about it until he had.

“I’m literally in a black box.I don’t know what’s in the report, other than what Ms.

Osako says,” Kin said.Osako’s lawyer, Paul Rigali, argued that Kin could decide to block the report’s release without reviewing it himself, citing Osako’s privacy interest.Rigali later ...