In 2009 and 2011, plaintiff Eva Toppo, a firefighter with the city of Redlands, applied for the fire captain position. Toppo was promoted to an engineer in June 2009, but was not promoted to a fire captain until June 2012. Toppo sued the city of Redlands, as well as Fire Chief Jeff Frazier, David Graves, Scott MacDonald and Jim Topoleski. Toppo alleged that she should have been promoted to fire captain without having to serve as engineer first and that the defendants’ failure to promote her to fire captain constituted gender discrimination. The individual defendants were ultimately removed from the case, and the matter continued against the city only. Toppo claimed that she started working with the fire department in 2001 and that she tested as the number one candidate in back-to-back fire captain’s tests in 2009 and 2011, but that she was not promoted because she was a female serving in an all-male department. She also claimed that Frazier allegedly made comments in the summer of 2009, and again in January 2011 or February 2011, that indicated to her that the department was not ready for a female captain. Frazier denied making any of comments that Toppo alleged. Defense counsel contended that, historically, no one has been promoted from firefighter to fire captain under Frazier, as he does not believe in jumping positions. Counsel also contended that, looking at the past 30 years, Toppo’s timing grade as an engineer was actually shorter than the vast majority that have been promoted to fire captain. In addition, counsel contended that the candidates that were promoted to fire captain ahead of Toppo had greater experience as an engineer when they were promoted., Toppo claimed that she suffered emotional distress as a result of being denied the fire captain position after the two prior times she applied for the promotion. She also claimed that as a result of not being given the promotion sooner, she suffered a loss of earnings. Based on pre-trial rulings from Judge Bryan Foster, the parties ultimately stipulated to Toppo’s wage loss being the pay differential between the engineer and fire captain positions. Toppo is still with the city’s fire department, working as a fire captain.