Mechelle sees 19 million and goes, "SAY WHAT!"

Thursday, the jury's unanimous verdict came in after an eight-week trial and four hours of deliberation: Johnson-Klein was awarded $19.1 million. The Fresno Bee has had the unenviable and laborious task of chronicling this mess, and I'd urge you to go to the newspaper's Web site and read its archived coverage. George Hostetter was the Bee's primary reporter for the Johnson-Klein trial and wrote fact-filled stories that also conveyed the undeniable sense of how soap-opera absurd some days of testimony were.

Even just a few stories will leave you with the feeling that "choosing sides" between Johnson-Klein and the school was akin to trying to untangle an unsavory knot of "which adults behaved badly more often."