A Solano County jury found that the City of Vallejo unlawfully retaliated against one of its own fire captains after she complained about gender discrimination, and the city has now agreed to pay $5 million to settle the case rather than let a jury decide damages. Captain Melisse Leitzke, who joined the Vallejo Fire Department in January 2000 and became just the third woman in department history to hold the rank of captain, had accused the city of derailing her career after she reported that the fire chief discriminated against her because of her gender.
The jury's liability verdict came down on July 31, following a trial that began July 14 in Department Eight of Solano County Superior Court before Hon. Wendy G. Getty, according to PR Newswire. The trial was bifurcated into separate liability and damages phases, and rather than proceed to that second phase, the city agreed to resolve the case, with the $5 million settlement covering lost wages, lost benefits, legal fees, and emotional distress. As part of the deal, Leitzke agreed to release all claims against the city and waive her appeal rights, according to SFGate.
A Fire Scene Incident That Led to Discipline
The retaliation dispute traces back to a June 30, 2022 salvage yard fire on Broadway in northern Vallejo, where Leitzke was accused of hosing down a reporter at the scene. She maintained she had only signaled for the reporter to step back from fire hazards, and an internal investigation ultimately cleared her of wrongdoing. Despite that finding, the city kept her on administrative leave and issued a notice of discipline seeking her demotion — action she alleged actually stemmed from an unsubstantiated complaint of intentional misconduct rather than any real wrongdoing.
Leitzke filed an internal gender discrimination complaint in November 2022, and by August 2023 she had filed a lawsuit, case number 23-02170, laying out a pattern of alleged bias stretching back to 2003. Those allegations, detailed by the news outlet the Vallejo Sun, included a supervisor questioning her sex life, being relegated to clerical work while male colleagues fought fires, and having her engineer promotion badge tossed across a table by the fire chief instead of being presented in a traditional ceremony. Vallejo had promoted Leitzke to engineer and, in 2016, to fire captain, with hopes on her part of one day becoming the department's first female battalion chief.
Attorneys Say Verdict Confirms Retaliation
Shelley A. Molineaux, counsel for Leitzke, said the verdict confirms that the City of Vallejo retaliated against her client for speaking out about gender discrimination. The retaliation verdict and settlement were secured by the law firms Ratner Molineaux, LLP and the Law Office of Christina Giorgio, P.C., which found that the city's conduct violated California's Fair Employment and Housing Act. When SFGate contacted the City of Vallejo on August 5, 2026 about the jury's finding and the settlement, the city declined to comment on the outcome.
Under FEHA, prevailing plaintiffs in workplace retaliation suits are statutorily entitled to recover mandatory attorney's fees along with uncapped compensatory damages for economic loss and emotional distress, according to the California Civil Rights Department. That fee-shifting framework, governed by California Government Code § 12965, is designed to prevent employers from litigating plaintiffs into financial exhaustion — and it likely factored into Vallejo's decision to settle before a jury could set damages in Leitzke's case.
A Decorated Career Predating the Dispute
Long before the 2022 fire scene incident, Leitzke had built a record recognized well beyond Vallejo. In December 2016, U.S. Representative Mike Thompson, who represented California's 5th Congressional District at the time, officially recognized her in the Congressional Record as a Public Safety Hero of the Year for Solano County, citing her top score on the captain examination and her mentorship work in the youth fire academy, per GovInfo. That congressional honor stands in stark contrast to the two decades of alleged internal resistance Leitzke says she faced within her own department.
The Vallejo Fire Department currently maintains 108 total employees across four divisions, with 99 suppression staff working out of six stations to respond to more than 16,000 emergency calls each year, per the City of Vallejo. Leitzke was one of only three women ever to hold a fire captain rank in that department's history.
Leadership Turmoil and a Pattern of Costly Settlements
Former Vallejo Fire Chief Kyle Long, who sought Leitzke's demotion following the 2022 incident, went on leave without explanation in April 2024, prompting the city to temporarily assign its interim police chief to oversee both public safety departments, the Vallejo Sun reported. The episode reflects broader executive turnover that has rattled Vallejo city leadership in recent years.
Leitzke's case is not the only recent retaliation claim brought by a female Vallejo employee. In November 2025, a Solano County Superior Court judge ordered the city to abide by a $130,000 settlement resolving a March 2023 retaliation and discrimination suit brought by former Vallejo housing manager Judy Shepard-Hall, who alleged she was discriminated against, denied appropriate pay, and scapegoated for homeless shelter budget overruns, according to the Vallejo Sun.
The $5 million fire department payout also follows a string of other multi-million-dollar civil rights settlements paid by the city, including an $8.5 million settlement reached in March 2026 over the 2020 police shooting of Sean Monterrosa — the largest civil rights settlement in Vallejo's history — and a separate $5 million settlement in January 2024 tied to another fatal police shooting. Together, the payouts point to a city grappling with mounting financial exposure across both its police and fire departments, even as it declines to publicly address the outcomes.
