In January 2015, plaintiff Jose Rossi, 56, an assistant deputy district attorney for Napa County, was terminated from his position. Rossi claimed that he was discriminated against because of his age and disabilities, and because he endorsed a candidate running against the then-incumbent district attorney, Gary Lieberstein. Rossi sued the county of Napa. Rossi alleged that the county’s actions constituted disability discrimination and age discrimination in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act. He also alleged that the county failed to accommodate him and retaliated against him, resulting in his wrongful termination. Rossi later removed his age discrimination claims. Rossi claimed that he was fired in retaliation for his protected speech by endorsing an opponent of the district attorney in an election. He alleged that Lieberstein and two of his managers, including the current district attorney, Allison Haley, who previously served as Lieberstein’s chief deputy, began targeting him after he asked for accommodations. Rossi claimed that he first asked for voice recognition software because of his carpal tunnel syndrome and that he later asked for restroom accommodations during his treatment for cancer, but that within a month of his initial requests for reasonable accommodations, the district attorney’s office retaliated against him by moving him to a more typing-intensive position that was the opposite of the reasonable accommodation he needed. He also claimed that the district attorney’s office assigned him an increased workload in retaliation for his requests for reasonable accommodation and placed him on an unpaid, involuntary leave of absence rather than accommodating him. Rossi further claimed that the district attorney’s office tried to undermine the reasonable accommodations that the human resources department approved and that Lieberstein allegedly made multiple statements about how he did not want to provide a reasonable accommodation and that he only wanted Rossi to work as a district attorney if he was 100 percent. In addition, Rossi claimed that until he asked for reasonable accommodations, he had over 20 years of good performance reviews, but that after he asked for reasonable accommodations, the district attorney’s office started creating a paper trail to justify his termination, started disciplining him, and fired him for pre-textual reasons. Defense counsel contended that Rossi was reasonable accommodated, but that Rossi had performance issues and ultimately left an innocent defendant in custody after receiving exculpatory evidence., Rossi spent more than 22 years as an assistant deputy district attorney for Napa County. Thus, he claimed he suffered from emotional distress as a result of his termination. However, he did not seek counseling and did not present an expert to testify about his alleged emotional distress damages. Rossi sought recovery of emotional distress damages, and past and future lost wages and benefits.