A lawsuit that named decorated St. John Bosco High School football coach Jason Negro as a defendant was ruled by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday to have little legal basis.
The civil suit filed a year ago by recently fired St. John Bosco president and CEO Brian Wickstrom and two other former school administrators seeks damages from Negro, the school and the Salesian Society — a Catholic religious order that oversees the school — claiming retaliation, harassment and defamation.
“Anyone can file a complaint, but when it gets to court, it has to have a legal basis and facts,” said Brian Panish, Negro’s lawyer and a longtime St. John Bosco booster.
The plaintiffs — St. John Bosco CFO Melanie Marcaurel, chief technology officer Derek Barraza and Wickstrom — also want their jobs back, according to the lawsuit. They were fired in 2024 after alleging that Negro embezzled money from the school for years and had assistant coaches pay the tuition for prized players in cash, saying the payments were from “anonymous donors.”
The lawsuit also alleged that Negro conducted all financial transactions associated with his powerhouse program in cash that he keeps in a safe in his office, with no accounting or accountability by the school.
A cross-complaint filed in June by Negro, St. John Bosco and the Salesians fired back, saying that “the school uncovered information that Wickstrom obtained loans without authorization, received excessive compensation and benefits to which he was not entitled, and breached his fiduciary duties.”
In his ruling Thursday, Judge Tony L. Richardson determined that St. John Bosco — not Negro or the Salesian Society — employed the plaintiffs, making only the school a proper target for most of the claims. Richardson said that the plaintiffs have 20 days to amend their lawsuit to focus on St. John Bosco as a defendant.
The judge also shot down an argument that Negro is responsible for punitive damages, writing “the plaintiffs have not alleged a viable cause of action against Negro and therefore have not alleged facts to support punitive damages.”
A message left with the lawyer representing Wickstrom, Marcaurel and Barraza was not returned.
Negro has twice been named national coach of the year by Max Preps, leading the Bellflower parochial school to a record of 177-30 in 16 seasons, winning four CIF State championships and two national titles.