Western Washington University is arguing that a former internal auditor awarded $3 million in a wrongful termination suit was not a whistleblower, despite the jury verdict.
Antonia Allen was fired from Western in November 2019 after investigating and reporting to federal and state authorities that staff and faculty in the university’s Woodring College of Education had granted false academic credentials to students. In May 2024, a jury awarded Allen $2,999,406, including back pay, front pay and $1.5 million for emotional harm. She was awarded an additional $656,000 in legal fees in September.
The jury decided that Allen proved she was a whistleblower; that she was subjected to “reprisal or retaliatory action” by Western; that she was wrongfully terminated in violation of public policy; and that she suffered damages caused by Western’s “retaliatory and or/wrongful actions in violation of public policy.”
The state, on behalf of Western, quickly motioned to overturn the verdict, arguing that there was no evidence Allen was a whistleblower and calling the emotional harm damages “excessive.” The court denied the motion. That day, June 21, 2024, the state filed an appeal.
In an appellate court brief filed in November 2024, the state argued that Allen did not meet the “statutory definition” of whistleblower and was therefore “not subject to those protections when she was terminated.” Then-attorney general Bob Ferguson, the special assistant attorney general and assistant attorneys general, argued that Allen was acting as a “designated public official,” performing “normal and required job duties” when she reported the misconduct.
The law in question is RCW 42.40.010, which intends to “protect the rights of state employees” who disclose “improper governmental actions.” It distinguishes between “public official” and “whistleblower”: a public official includes a person designated to receive whistleblower reports (which Allen was), while a “whistleblower” includes an employee who reports improper governmental action to the state auditor or other public official.
Allen’s lawyers Gary Manca and Phillip Talmadge argued in their February brief that the state’s interpretation of the law, if accepted, “would allow agencies to block investigations of government misconduct.” They argue the appeal is “moot” because it only challenges a “narrow issue,” and the state had previous opportunities to challenge the definition of “whistleblower” but didn’t.
Manca and Talmadge argued that a state employee can be a public official and a whistleblower at the same time.
“If the whistleblower statute allowed an agency to fire an employee for what Allen did here, agency officials could stop investigations in their tracks. That cannot be — and is not — Washington law,” they wrote.
The state has until April 14 to file a reply brief.
Allen was hired as the director of the Office of the Internal Auditor at Western in 2017. Her lawsuit centered on her termination being a response to an investigation into “ghost courses.” Her investigation concluded that 20 students may have been offered and granted “fraudulent” course credits between winter quarter 2016 and winter quarter 2019 for financial aid qualification purposes. It found that this was a “systemic” practice in the college.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
