photo by: Contributed Photo

Suzanne Valdez was elected to serve as Douglas County district attorney in November 2020.

Updated at 4:46 p.m. Friday

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez resigned Thursday from her job at the University of Kansas School of Law, the DA’s office said in a news release Friday.

Valdez, a Democrat who was sworn in as the district attorney earlier this month, was put on administrative leave after a conflict with KU in which she withheld student grades over a pay dispute with the university.

The news release from her office Friday criticized KU for “refus(ing) to make positive changes” on issues related to racial justice, gender inequity and sexual assault. Further detail on these complaints was not provided; however, Valdez said earlier this month that KU’s actions during the pay dispute were in retaliation for her criticism of the university.

On Friday, Valdez’s office said she had no further comment on her resignation.

On Jan. 11, the Journal-World reported that KU had placed Valdez on leave — with the possibility of being fired — and criticized her for improperly withholding students’ grades as leverage in a $7,500 pay dispute regarding her teaching load.

Valdez sent a letter to her students in which she called the incident an “unfortunate teaching moment” and wrote that “innocent parties” like them sometimes got caught up in contractual disputes. She told the Journal-World that her students supported her.

Valdez’s letter to students blamed the law school dean, Stephen Mazza, for Valdez’s actions and “privileged white men” who “refused to acknowledge the contributions and merits of women and minorities.” Valdez is Latina.

Valdez said she did eventually post the withheld final grades after 20 hours, after realizing that the delay in grades was affecting the final ranking of students in the entire law school.

School officials said at the time that it was unfortunate that Valdez involved students in a matter between her and KU.

“This is a personnel matter, and as such the university is not able to discuss the details,” said Joe Monaco, associate vice chancellor of public affairs for KU. “That said, it is unfortunate that Professor Valdez has chosen to publicly misrepresent the circumstances of this matter. It is even more unfortunate that she chose to involve her students in her own personal dispute with her employer. The university will always act in the best interests of our students. We look forward to resolving this matter with Professor Valdez in a professional manner.”

Valdez said the $7,500 payment should be made over and above her standard salary as the school’s Connell Teaching Chair and clinical professor of law, as part of a previous settlement agreement regarding her compensation.

The previous settlement agreement — which includes nondisparagement agreements from both parties — regarding Valdez’s pay was arrived at following a discrimination complaint Valdez brought against the university regarding her salary and other compensation, as well as determinations of her course load and teaching assignments, according to the agreement. The university denied such discrimination, and the agreement states KU’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access investigated the matter and found no unlawful discrimination had occurred.

The settlement agreement noted that Valdez’s base KU salary was $106,000 plus overload pay of $7,500.

Valdez is also a corroborating witness in a separate matter against KU. As the Journal-World reported in October, a woman who was charged in January 2019 with filing a false report of rape has sued KU, the City of Lawrence and multiple Lawrence police officers in federal court. Valdez has vocally supported the woman, one of her former students. Valdez has criticized KU’s handling of sexual assault allegations and has said that law enforcement in Lawrence failed to protect women.

On Friday, after Valdez announced her resignation from KU, Monaco said only, “We wish Suzanne well in her new role.”

Valdez had worked at KU for 21 years. Her husband, Stephen McAllister, now a U.S. attorney appointed by former President Donald Trump, also worked at the law school for many years, and was dean from 2000 to 2005.

Valdez was elected to the DA position in November 2020 after running unopposed in the general election and after having defeated the longtime incumbent DA, Charles Branson, in the Democratic primary. As DA, Valdez makes $164,000 a year, according to county records.

When asked on Friday what Valdez’s plan had been with respect to her KU employment before the most recent development, Lucca Wang, the DA office’s public information officer, said that Valdez had planned to keep teaching in some capacity and to “regularly work that out with the university.”

Wang added that because of KU’s recent actions against her, including threatening to terminate her, Valdez decided to step away from KU and “is excited to keep moving the progress of the DA’s office forward.”

PDF

PDF

— Reporter Rochelle Valverde contributed to this report.