USC settled a lawsuit with a former high-ranking athletics department official who alleged that the university allowed former athletic director Mike Bohn to harass and racially discriminate against her, then fired her when she raised concerns about Bohn's behavior.
Joyce Bell Limbrick was the highest-ranking Black and female official in USC's athletics department when she was fired by the university in September 2023, four months after Bohn resigned amid an internal investigation into her conduct and the department's culture. Bell Limbrick filed a lawsuit early last year, accusing USC of wrongful termination.
That dispute was settled out of court this week. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
When contacted by The Times, Bell Limbrick declined to comment. Bohn has never publicly addressed the allegations.
While the lawsuit never went to trial, it offered the most detailed account yet of the conduct that led to Bohn's resignation.
Bell Limbrick filed a Title IX complaint with the university against Bohn in October 2022, after an incident in which she says Bohn punched her in the arm during a USC volleyball game. That complaint eventually forced an investigation, during which, according to her complaint, Bell Limbrick told USC officials about “Bohn's history and rumors of inappropriate and unwanted touching involving … other women at both Cincinnati and USC.”
The university hired an outside law firm that specializes in institutional responses to racial and sexual harassment and discrimination to investigate Bohn five months later. The Times learned of that investigation shortly afterward, as well as an earlier investigation into Bohn's conduct at Cincinnati, and in May asked both Bohn and USC about those concerns.
Bohn resigned a day later.
Shortly after, the university fired Bell Limbrick, citing “a pattern of poor performance.” She was the only member of an 11-member executive team to lose her job and, according to the complaint, had just received a “merit increase” due to her “overall job performance.”
Bell Limbrick worked at USC for nine years, initially as director of athletic compliance, before Bohn was hired in 2019. Shortly after becoming athletic director, Bohn promoted Bell Limbrick to senior administrator, one of the highest-ranking positions in the department. According to her complaint, she had been one of the few black women to hold such a position at a major American university.
“Ms. Bell Limbrick had a prosperous career at USC and loved her job. Then along came Mike Bohn,” her attorney, J. Bernard Alexander, said in a statement in 2025.
“[Bohn’s] The incessant racially charged comments made Joyce feel uncomfortable and undervalued, but more than that: it actively isolated her from the executive team and undermined her work. “She was already vulnerable as the only Black woman on the team, and instead of supporting her, the university allowed Bohn to make her life a living hell.”
Her complaint detailed inappropriate comments made in front of USC donors and staff, as well as insensitive or discriminatory comments made in her presence. At the time, The Times spoke to six people with knowledge of the department's inner workings who largely corroborated its claims about Bohn's conduct.
Bohn declined to answer questions from the Times about his conduct leading the athletic department, but he provided a statement to the Times on the day of his resignation in May 2023 stating that he “would always be proud to lead the program through the most tumultuous times in the history of the profession.”
“Moving forward, it is important now that I focus on being present with my beloved family, addressing current health challenges, and reflecting on how I can make an impact in the future,” Bohn said in the statement.
