The Case

• Case Name: Randy Pinnelli v. Community Medical Centers, Inc.
• Court and Case Number: San Joaquin County Superior Court / CV-2023-9782
• Date of Verdict or Judgment: Friday, January 09, 2026
• Date of Settlement: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
• Date Action was Filed: Wednesday, September 13, 2023
• Type of Case: Employment, Wrongful Termination
• Judge or Arbitrator(s): Hon. Jayne C. Lee
• Plaintiffs:
  Randy Pinnelli, 64
• Defendants:
  Community Medical Centers, Inc.
• Type of Result: Settlement at Trial

The Result

• Gross Verdict or Award: $4,318,000
• Settlement Amount: $6,300,000
• Award as to each Defendant:$4,318,000 as to Community Medical Centers, Inc., with a predicate finding for punitive damages.
• Economic Damages:$908,000
• Non-Economic Damages:$3,408,000
• Punitive Damages: Settled prior to the punitive damages phase.
• Trial or Arbitration Time: 8 days
• Jury Deliberation Time: 90 minutes
• Jury Polls: 12 of 12 on each special verdict question
• Post Trial Motions & Post-Verdict Settlements: Settled prior to punitive damages phase.

The Attorneys

• Attorney for the Plaintiff:

  Mayall Hurley P.C. by Nicholas F. Scardigli and William J. Gorham III, Lodi.

• Attorney for the Defendant:

  Wanger Jones Helsley PC by Michael S. Helsley and Stephanie M. Hosman, Fresno.

The Experts

• Plaintiff’s Medical Expert(s):

  Andrew Mendonsa, Psy.D., ABBHP, MBA, psychology.

• Defendant's Medical Expert(s):None.
• Plaintiff's Technical Expert(s):

  Phillip H. Allman III, Ph.D., economics.

• Defendant's Technical Expert(s):

  None.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background: Plaintiff, a white male, worked as a physician's assistant and, most recently, a director at Community Medical Centers, Inc. for 23 years. He was terminated for alleged insubordination after complaining of racial bias and discrimination.
• Plaintiff's Contentions: Plaintiff became a licensed physician's assistant in 1991. He worked in a private practice from 1991 until 2000, at which time he was recruited by Community Medical Centers, Inc. ("CMC"). CMC is a healthcare provider focused on providing services to San Joaquin County communities. Plaintiff worked 23 years for CMC before it wrongfully terminated his employment on May 31, 2023.Following the national momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, CMC formed a Diversity Equity and Inclusion ("DEI") committee. In April of 2022, Tarsha Addison, a Black female, was hired by CMC to be its chief equity and people officer, a newly created position that replaced CMC's position of director of human resources. Dolores Victoria Cardona, a Hispanic female who reported to plaintiff, was the co-chair of the DEI committee, along with Ms. Addison. Ms. Cardona and Ms. Addison used their positions, motivated by their racial animus towards Caucasian coworkers, whom they deemed to have "white privilege," to trigger the investigations that ended plaintiff's employment at CMC. According to falsified CMC documents, the investigations commenced on November 1, 2022, based on a proxy complaint made by Ms. Cardona on behalf of Care Link staff member Melinda Ramirez. Plaintiff complained to upper management and members of the CMC human resources department that Ms. Cardona was exhibiting racial bias towards him, including by making derogatory statements about his race. Danielle Lorta, a CMC staff engagement manager and the lead investigator in the complaints against plaintiff, understood that plaintiff's complaint involved behavior prohibited under the law and under CMC's policies. Ms. Lorta forwarded plaintiff's complaints to Ms. Addison. When the months' long investigations had not uncovered evidence sufficient to terminate plaintiff's employment (or for that matter, any other disciplinary action), CMC shifted to looking for a "pattern of insubordination." Christine Noguera, CMC's then-CEO, as part of this search for a pattern, handed Ms. Lorta documents from 2021 and 2022, falsely telling her that plaintiff had been insubordinate more than 10 years prior when he was removed from an administrative post and "solicited" a letter of protest by the eight board members of Region IX Health Care for the Homeless. In truth, plaintiff was removed and later reinstated, whereas the interim CEO who removed him was terminated. Nevertheless, this act of "insubordination" 10 years ago purportedly tipped the scales for CMC, and it terminated plaintiff's employment of 23 years.
• Instead of acting on plaintiff's complaints, Ms. Addison, Ms. Lorta, and CMC's executive management buried them. While ignoring plaintiff's complaints and investigating Ms. Cardona's complaint on behalf of Ms. Ramirez, CMC received another complaint against plaintiff from Ms. Cardona on her own behalf and one by a fellow Care Link employee, Antoinette Morris.
• In July of 2022, Ms. Cardona was upset because she was asked, like all other Care Link staff, to conduct her outreach work with a partner and not to use a personal vehicle when a company vehicle, such as an outreach van or RV, was available. In turn, Ms. Cardona abused her power as co-chair of the DEI committee to generate multiple baseless complaints against plaintiff. While ginning up her complaints, Ms. Cardona told other staff that plaintiff was a "white devil," an example of white privilege, and someone who would "put his foot on your neck" (in a reference to George Floyd).
• During this time, not only was Mr. Pinnelli never subjected to CMC's progressive discipline, he was also a significant contributor to medical care to area homeless shelters and other areas where the homeless congregated. In 2001, he developed CMC's Care Link Program to bring medical services to the unhoused. In 2011, with the Gospel Rescue Mission, he established the Gleason House Medical Clinic to provide no-cost medical care to the homeless and to serve as a neighborhood medical clinic in the Gleason Park area of Stockton. Plaintiff also served on national and local boards of organizations with missions to provide medical services to the unhoused and underserved.
• Defendant's Contentions: That during the last 10 years of his employment, plaintiff had received multiple performance reviews. In these reviews, plaintiff had issues with poor communication and leadership with his staff and peers. Plaintiff would receive scores that did not meet expectations on these categories. CMC’s decision had nothing to do with plaintiff’s race, and in fact, the CEO who made the decision to terminate plaintiff was also white, and some of the employees who also complained about plaintiff were white. 
• In addition, the person who originally complained about plaintiff’s leadership and communication skills, had worked with plaintiff for 20 years, had gone on trips with him, bought him a tree when his mother died and also gave him Christmas gifts, including a “gone fishing” painting as she knew that he liked to fish. Plaintiff’s race was not the reason for his termination; it was his lack of leadership and communication skills, which was evident based on the first investigation and confirmed in the second level investigation.
• In 2022, CMC received complaints from employees regarding plaintiff’s poor leadership and communication ability, including allegations that he would talk down to his employees, and that he removed another employee from an internship in retaliation for complaining to Human Resources about him.  Based on the employee complaints, CMC conducted an investigation. At the conclusion of the investigation, CMC found that certain complaints were substantiated. However, the CEO at the time, who was also white, wanted to have a further investigation to also interview other employees whom plaintiff supervised. During this second investigation, other employees scored plaintiff low on leadership and communication.  Based on the investigations, and the critical responses from those he supervised, CMC made the decision to terminate plaintiff’s employment.