USC has settled a lawsuit with a former high-ranking athletic department official who alleged that the university allowed former athletic director Mike Bohn to racially harass and 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 athletic department when she was fired by the university in September 2023, four months after Bohn resigned amid an internal investigation of her conduct and the department’s culture. Bell Limbrick sued USC early last year, accusing him of wrongful termination.
That dispute was settled out of court this week. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Bell-Limbrick declined to comment when The Times contacted her. Bonn never addressed the allegations publicly.
Although the suit 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 against Bohan with the university in October 2022, following an incident in which she said Bohan punched her in the arm at a USC volleyball match. That complaint ultimately 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 Bohan five months later. The Times learned of that investigation soon thereafter, as well as a previous investigation into Bohn’s conduct at Cincinnati, and in May, both Bohn and USC were asked about those concerns.
Bohan resigned a day later.
Shortly thereafter, the university fired Bell Limbrick, citing “a pattern of poor performance”. She was the only member of the 11-member executive team to lose her job and was awarded a “merit increase” because of her “overall work performance,” according to the complaint.
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 women’s administrator, one of the highest ranking positions in the department. According to her complaint, she was one of the few black women to hold this position at a major American university.
His lawyer J. Bernard Alexander said in a statement in 2025, “Ms. Bell Limbrick had a great career at USC and loved her work. Then, Mike Bohn arrived.”
“(Bohn’s) persistent, racially charged comments made Joyce uncomfortable and undervalued, but more than that – it actively isolated her from the executive team and undermined her work. As the only black woman on the team she was already vulnerable, and instead of supporting her, the university allowed Bohn to make her life hell.”
Her complaint details inappropriate comments made in front of USC donors and staff, as well as insensitive or discriminatory comments made in their presence. At the time, the Times spoke to six people with knowledge of the inner workings of the department, who largely confirmed Bohn’s claims about his 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, saying he would “always be proud to lead the program through one of the most difficult times in the history of the profession.”
“Moving forward, it is now important that I focus on being present with my beloved family, addressing ongoing health challenges, and how I can be impactful in the future,” Bohn said in the statement.
