A jury delivered a unanimous $3 million verdict late Friday evening, siding with the owner of now-closed Big City Coffee, who said two Boise State University administrators had violated her First Amendment rights.

After a nine-day jury trial, Sarah Jo Fendley prevailed over Alicia Estey, Boise State’s chief financial and operating officer and vice president for finance and operations, and Boise State President Marlene Tromp’s former chief of staff; and Leslie Webb, Boise State’s former vice president for student affairs and enrollment management. In her lawsuit, Fendley accused Estey and Webb of pushing Big City off campus in the fall of 2020 — in retaliation, said Fendley, for her vocal support of law enforcement.

The jury awarded Fendley a total of $3 million in damages for business losses, mental and emotional distress, personal humiliation and lost reputation. The jury also ruled Webb, now a University of Montana administrator, was liable for another $1 million in punitive damages.

The ruling is the latest in a case that first began in 2021, when Big City Coffee filed a $10 million tort claim against the university and several administrators. Fendley alleged that having to vacate her on-campus business following student upheaval in the wake of Minnesota resident George Floyd’s death violated the Idaho Consumer Protection Act and her constitutional rights. Students had questioned the coffee shop’s enthusiastic support of the Thin Blue Line and police officers at its downtown location, and called for the closure of its Albertsons Library location.

This decision came after nine days of witness testimony and evidence over the course of three weeks. Estey, Webb, Tromp, Associate Vice President for Campus Services Nicole Nimmons, Fendley’s former fiancé and retired BPD Sergeant Kevin Holtry and others took the stand for questioning from both sides. The jury also heard evidence related to concerns from a group of students about the coffee shop and the response from university officials. They also reviewed two audio recordings of meetings between Fendley and university officials.

Fendley’s attorney, Michael Roe with the Boise firm Givens Pursley, praised the result in brief remarks on his way out of the building Friday night.

“We’re very grateful,” he said. “The system worked and we had a great jury and the clerk was great. Sarah got her day after all of these years. … We’re very pleased.”

Keely Duke, the attorney representing Webb and Estey from the Boise firm Duke Evett, sent a statement to the media Friday evening, vowing to appeal the case to the Idaho Supreme Court.

“We respectfully but strongly disagree with today’s verdict and plan to appeal,” she said. “We were honoring the First Amendment rights of all involved.”

At this time it is unclear if the university, insurance, or Webb and Estey themselves in their personal capacity will pay the damages.

Roe: ‘They didn’t care about her’

Roe closed his case by urging the jury to see Fendley was unfairly forced to take her business off campus, because the administration bowed to the will of a few angry students.

During his closing statement, Roe took the time to highlight Fendley’s humble beginnings as a restaurant owner and her work to build Big City Coffee into a Boise mainstay. He praised her work to build an inclusive work environment of loyal employees behind the counter, her work giving to local charities and her decisions to spend more on local produce to support other businesses like herself.

He contrasted Fendley, who didn’t graduate from college, with Estey, Webb and the cadre of other top Boise State officials who became involved in her contract once the debate over Black Lives Matter and the Thin Blue Line erupted onto her social media pages.

“(This case is) not about liberal vs. conservative, Black vs. white, gay vs. straight. It’s not even about anti-police or pro-police. That’s not what this case is about. It’s about highly educated, highly compensated government officials running Idaho’s largest university grossly mistreating a small business woman because they didn’t care about her and doing so was easier than doing the right thing. In doing that mistreatment, they violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and free expression.”

A major focus for Roe in his arguments centered around meeting minutes for the Inclusive Excellence Student Council, an arm of the student government. These minutes showed Webb’s conversations with students airing their frustrations about Big City Coffee’s affiliation with the Thin Blue Line movement in support of police. Webb told the jury it was her job to hear students out, even though they had no power to change the contract with Big City Coffee or make other administrative decisions.

But Roe argued Boise State was focused on only hearing and accommodating students strong feelings, instead of setting them straight on Fendley’s support of the Thin Blue Line.

“The point is they are kids,” Roe said. “Although the defendants say ‘Don’t call them kids. They’re adults’, but then, on the other hand, they want special treatment. We’re going to allow the kids to slander people and say horrible things about (Fendley’s) business. It’s one way or the other. They’re either adults and they’re fully accountable for the things they say and do or they’re really just children and we’ll just ignore them. But, don’t let the defendants have it both ways.”

Roe also heavily pressured Estey on the stand during her testimony Friday morning over her decision to record an Oct. 22, 2020 meeting between herself, Webb, Fendley, Holtry, his friend Brian Holland, Fendley’s store manager and a representative from campus food service vendor Aramark. Estey testified to the jury she recorded the meeting like she had many others during this period, particularly on complex topics like the university’s COVID-19 response, for her own note-taking.

Roe pushed back on this and criticized her decision to record the meeting without telling everyone in the room,  and only disclosing it in the lawsuit discovery process when it was required, and not before Fendley was deposed for hours by an earlier attorney in the civil case.

“When your attorney has the recording and (Fendley) doesn’t even know about the recording, that’s a tremendous advantage to your side and a tremendous disadvantage to her,” Roe said, while cross-examining Estey. “I’m asking you as a practical matter. You testified that you recorded the meeting because you wanted to record to keep track of things, so wouldn’t you agree, that it was a tremendous advantage for your attorney to have that recording when she didn’t even know that recording existed?”

“My attorney followed the rules she was supposed to follow,” Estey replied.

“That wasn’t responsive, but if you’re not going to answer you’re not going to answer and I believe that tells the jury something,” Roe answered.

Duke: Big City’s case not supported by evidence

Throughout the trial, Duke argued again and again that Fendley and Big City Coffee’s case relied on conjecture and conspiracy theories, instead of facts and evidence that showed Boise State’s top officials moved to push Fendley off campus.

She urged the jury in her closing statement to keep their focus on whether Fendley was retaliated against for her social media post responding to a student criticizing her support of the Thin Blue Line, instead of Fendley’s emotional difficulties and her personal experiences.

“They are defending Big City and Ms. Fendley’s First Amendment rights and no one else’s because she believes her rights were above all others, all student rights and Boise State’s rights,” she said. “Just imagine if Alicia Estey and Leslie Webb had said yes to that. Imagine what a college campus would look like if they said yes. If a Chick-fil-A says we’d like you to do something about the gay and lesbian community…That’s the world Big City and Sarah Fendley want to live in.”

Duke argued to the jury that if Roe’s theories were correct that Estey and Webb were buckling under the pressure of the IESC and the small group of students upset about Big City Coffee’s presence on campus, they would have also buckled under the same pressure and canceled the university’s contract with the Boise Police Department. But, instead, she said the university took in this criticism and renewed the contract.

Another key part of Duke’s closing argument was to zero in on testimony from another BSU staffer: Nicole Nimmons. Nimmons testified for seven hours during the trial about her time working with Fendley to bring her to campus and the resulting frustration from some students prior to Fendley leaving. She testified tearfully on the stand and denied Webb’s account that Holtry yelled at her on the phone before the Oct. 22 meeting, and blamed other administrators not telling her about meetings with students who continued to raise concerns about Fendley’s business on campus into the fall.

Duke suggested to the jury that Nimmons crying on the day of the meeting with Fendley after she was asked not to participate was because she knew she didn’t properly complete her job duties and told both sides, Fendley and Webb, different things about the conflict.

“She wasn’t part of a single meeting, not one meeting, where she could tell you that terminating the contract, removing Big City from campus was discussed,” Duke said. “All she did was speculate.”

Boise Dev and Idaho Education News have partnered for coverage of the Big City Coffee case, with senior reporters Margaret Carmel and Kevin Richert sharing court reporting duties.