Kings County DA Secretary Alexandria Smith wins $1.9m settlement in sexual harassment case

Editor’s note: This article was updated August 7 at 10:45pm

The jury awarded a $1.9 million verdict to DA secretary Alexandria Smith today, (8/6/25) for past non-economic suffering in a stunning blow to Kings County whose attorneys argued that the county took the right steps to deal with her complaints of retaliation and sexual harassment by ex-DA Keith Fagundes.

Smith, dressed in a dark blue outfit, sobbed as the judge went through the jury’s verdict in the 16 counts. Virtually all of them were in her favor.

After the trial she said the verdict was “…not for me but all of the women who felt oppressed in the workplace and were silenced by those who didn’t want it to come out.” She said she expects to return to her job in a few days as office manager/secretary to DA Sarah Hacker who defeated Fagundes in his bid for a third term in June of 2022.

Smith said the presence of Fagundes’ father Richard on the Kings County Board of Supervisors had to have affected how they should have acted.

Kings County Administrator Kyria Martinez who sat through most the trial refused to make any comment both during and after the verdict. She clearly looked shaken after the verdict.

The county’s attorney James Arendt of Fresno said the county hasn’t determined whether it will appeal the verdict. He also couldn’t say at this point how much of the settlement amount will have to be paid by the county and how much will be covered by insurance. Martinez said today (8/7/25) that the Kings County Board of Supervisors will decide whether the verdict will be appealed, a process that plaintiff’s co-counsel John L. Barber said could take three years.

The verdict comes on the heels of a $1.1 million settlement paid by the county a few years ago to Robert Waggle, chief DA investigator under Fagundes, for sexual harassment.

Juror Foreperson Stephanie Fontaine of Hanford said when the jurors were excused to deliberate after lunch on Tuesday they were all initially in agreement on the case. “There was no one piece of evidence,” said Fontaine.

The jurors “felt Keith Fagundes lied” in his testimony. Fagundes’ testimony was largely dismissive of Smith’s claims of sexual harassment and retaliation.

In his testimony on Monday August 4, Fagundes either outright denied Smith’s claims or gave an interpretation of them in a more favorable light.

At one time Waggle, his then girlfriend Smith and Keith Fagundes were close. They called themselves the “three muskateers” and the “the amigos,” Fagundes testified. The relationship developed into a friendship, Fagundes testified.

When Waggle was having marital difficulties and living rent free at Fagundes’ pool house, Fagundes testified, Waggle and Smith were at Fagundes’ house every weekend. And Waggle and Smith each brough their kids, Fagundes said.

But as Fagundes said in his August 4 testimony something happened. Waggle and Fagundes stopped have lunch together, Fagundes testified.

He said his connection to Smith, whom he described “autocratic” and lacking in personal skills, was through Waggle whom Fagundes described as a confidante. Waggle agreed about Smith’s lack of personal skills, said Fagundes. Fagundes said he went with Smith to Sacramento for leadership training so she could get personal skills. At another point in his testimony Fagundes described Smith as “a difficult personality to deal with” and Fagundes said he found her “a difficult personality to deal with” adding that she was “aloof, arrogant and unworkable.”

But yet when Smith was first hired, Fagundes said, it was he, over the objections of other staff members, who championed Smith’s cause. He said Smith had “…determination reminding me of my sisters and my wife, impressive.”

During cross examination the county’s co-counsel Arendt asked Fagundes if he ever made comments about Waggle and his body? Fagundes said no, adding to Arendt’s question about touching Waggle in a sexual manner, Fagundes said, “I don’t believe so….(I) never touch(ed) Waggle in a sexual manner, tell things of a sexual nature (to) Ms. Smith, never asked (about) sex life (with) Waggle, anal sex never, asked how big Mr. Waggles’ penis was…”

Then Arendt asked if Fagundes ever made a comment about seeing Waggle have sexual intercourse with Smith. Fagundes denied making such a comment adding, “Robert being an expert investigator could imprint people. (I) happened to love pineapple. (Waggle) going to imprint you. (It) makes your semen sweet. Now you have ruined pineapple.”

During the entirety of Fagundes’ nearly two hours of testimony Smith did not look at Fagundes once and Smith said listening to Fagundes was the most difficult part of the case for her.

As soon as the county became aware of Smith’s allegations they have to act under the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, she said. But instead the county chose to move Smith from the DA’s office to the human resources department where she had virtually no duties.

Smith’s attorney Barber said there was a whole host of actions that the county could have taken including presenting the matter to the grand jury but the county chose not to take any of them.

The jurors decided at the end of the day Tuesday what their verdict should be but they asked to review an additional piece of evidence, a report from Daniele Drossel of Oppenheimer, a legal investigative service hired by the county.

The jury found Keith Fagundes’ sexual comments to Smith graphic and not appropriate, Fontaine said.
“I think we did a good job,” she said. “We did the right thing.”

Barber, co-counsel for Smith, said, “the jury usually gets it right.”

In the early 2020s, plaintiff Alexandra Smith testified that Fagundes referred to a broken tennis racket trophy outside the DA’s office and, according to Smith, made the following statement: “When the tennis racket breaks off looks like you won an award for masturbation.”

Smith also testified that when she and the DA went to a horse ranch that the DA was considering hiring for horse riding therapy for young victims of abuse, Fagundes referred to a male horse’s sexual anatomy and said in a text to her co-worker Robert Waggle that he should find a horse that reminds him (Fagundes) of himself.

Smith testified that Fagundes purchased underwear for Robert Waggle, the DA’s chief investigator, and that she overheard a statement that Fagundes’ sex life with his wife was better now that Waggle was around. Waggle lived in an apartment owned by Fagundes.

When her co-attorney Larry Lennemann asked her about her relationship with Fagundes after she heard that statement, she testified, “My relationship with Keith Fagundes started to deteriorate.” With her voice breaking, she continued, “(he) made it clear to me that he had control over my position (office manager).” She added that she “…never had any reason to question him…(I) saw what he did to people who questioned him…(I was) scared to push back.”

Smith said Fagundes was constantly asking her about her sex life with her partner. She testified that Fagundes had power in the county and she couldn’t just go to anybody to resolve her difficulties.

Referring to Fagundes as the top law enforcement official in the county, she said the comments Fagundes made to her were cumulative over time. In hindsight, she testified, she wouldn’t react the same way now as she did then.

In the final day of arguments on Tuesday opposing counsels traded interpretations about what constituted harassment and whether the county acted properly in response to Smith’s complaints about her boss DA Keith Fagundes.

The case in superior court here went to jury of seven women and five men early in the afternoon and deliberations were expected to last at least until Wednesday. Smith’s co-counsel Barber the legal matter at hand was clear-cut. The state Fair Employment and Housing Act the employer is strictly liable for workplace harassment.

If Fagundes harassed Alex Smith, Barber said, the inquiry is over. The employer’s obligation Barber told the jury, which appeared to be attentive, arises “…when I knew or should have known.”

Harassment is based on gender, he said, there is no requirement that sexual desire be present. “This is a series of adverse employment actions,” Barber said. “That is harassment.”

Kings County was supposed to take all reasonable steps to avoid harassment, he said. But the county didn’t do that.

But Fresno attorney James Arendt said while a lot of people didn’t like Fagundes, the plaintiff’s case is a distraction to sidetrack the jury from the real issue: did Fagundes harass and retaliate against her?

One of Smith’s claims was that as DA secretary Fagundes sent her emails every day about things he wanted her to do, Arendt recapped from previous testimony. There was one email discussed during trial, Arendt said, that involved id cards and checking with human resources on the victim witness advocate.

”She said he sent her emails every day,” Arendt said. “(I) didn’t see any of those emails.”
Except August 16, 2024, he “said, there aren’t any.

Arendt described the email matter as a perfect example of “…blowing things out and exaggerating. (She) tried to make you believe (she was) taking all three of these tasks in one day.”

Arendt also called Smith’s claim that Fagundes tried to take away her Internet access as a “non-issue.”

“Where is the evidence (of) him, Keith Fagundes, cutting off iPad service?”

At the end of the email Fagundes said, according to testimony, that he would have the county buy Smith an iPad.

Smith argued that cross training Veronica Miller for Smith’s job was a hostile act but Arendt called it “…a good business practice.”

Evidence was presented of her belongings in the office being thrown away. “Nothing was thrown away,” Arendt told the jury.

HR director Bonnie Ring and Risk Manager Sande Huddleston were Smith’s strongest allies, Arendt recalled, “…they couldn’t tell you one thing Keith Fagundes did to retaliate.”

“Smith had the tendency to twist the facts, so its fits her narrative,” Arendt said.

He urged the jurors not to fall into the trap that former DA chief investigator Robert Waggle got money, so should Smith.

Throughout Arendt summation Smith did not look at him but straight ahead. This was the same posture she took Monday when the most explosive witness of the trial, Fagundes, testified.

In a rebuttal to Arendt’s summation Barber said the county is responsible for taking all reasonable steps to prevent harassment. The county, Barber said, knew about Smith’s claims in August of 2021 but did zero investigation.

“When a man with power speaks to you (women) with Mr. Keith Fagundes it is frightening,” said Barber.

“Of all the untruths of Keith Fagundes,” Barber said, “the most glaring” was that Fagundes said he hadn’t considered running run for DA in 2022.

Reprinted with the permission of the Visalia-Hanford-Lemoore Future