A former high-ranking official at Cal State Long Beach says the university fired her based on accusations she’d been romantically involved with a campus employee who was later arrested on suspicion of killing two people in Compton.

CSULB’s former vice president of student affairs, Carmen Taylor, made the revelation in a lawsuit she’s filed against the CSU Board of Trustees alleging they discriminated against her because she’s black and a woman.

The lawsuit gives a glimpse of Taylor’s behind-the-scenes perspective in the days after the shooting in Compton on Sept. 28. She alleges campus officials linked her to the suspected killer, partially because he stalked and threatened her shortly before the deadly shooting.

A spokeswoman for CSU, Toni Molle, said the university cannot comment on pending litigation. Jeff Cook, a spokesman for CSULB, echoed Molle but added, “We believe that the characterizations made are false and that the complaint is without merit.”

Taylor’s lawyer, Dean Royer, also declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit centers around an episode on campus that preceded the September shooting. Police said a disgruntled ex-CSULB employee, 43-year-old Jamie Williams, returned to campus voicing frustrations with the university.

While he was there, police said, Williams visited the Student Affairs office and Brotman Hall, where Taylor’s office was. Taylor wasn’t there, but Williams mentioned her while airing his grievances, police said. The lawsuit says that included making “statements regarding his alleged relationship with Dr. Taylor.”

Later that day, police allege Williams shot three family members, injuring one person and killing his stepfather and a 13-year-old girl before running naked from a Compton home. He was charged on Oct. 2 with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He’s pleaded not guilty.

After his arrest, Williams recanted his statements about a relationship with Taylor, her lawsuit says. Nevertheless, it says, CSULB President Jane Close Conoley “accused Dr. Taylor of having a disturbed individual on the campus, alluding to Mr. Williams.”

On Oct. 1, Conoley notified Taylor that she was being placed on leave and banned from campus, the lawsuit says. Days later, she was fired.

Taylor alleges the campus rushed to judgment without even interviewing her about what happened.

“Human Resources directed staff to clean out Dr. Taylor’s office during the three day investigation suggesting that the investigation was a farce,” the lawsuit says.

Taylor alleges campus officials accused her of getting Williams a job at the university by pressuring staffers to hire him. But, she also alleges that non-black school officials have long done the same thing without repercussions.

The lawsuit, which was filed last year but updated last week with new information, seeks to have Taylor reinstated to her job and paid for her troubles.

The suit says she’s been unable to find a job since she was fired because of the stories in the press that connect her to Williams. She blames campus officials for letting that information seep out.

The lawsuit doesn’t clarify what, if any, relationship Williams had with Taylor.

Taylor also includes other accusations of bias in the lawsuit.

The suit says she was paid less than male vice presidents. It also alleges Conoley had previously told Taylor to stop recruiting candidates from her female and historically black sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, saying that CSULB “already had enough of ‘them.'”

The suit also mentions another incident in September 2018, when Taylor allegedly reported to the attorney for CSULB that she had recently become aware of mismanagement of a federal work program for disabled students, resulting in a “significant” amount of money missing, fraudulent student records and students being paid for not working.

In addition, later that month, the university was embroiled in a controversy surrounding the firing of the director of the CSULB Art Museum over a show about police violence targeting black people. In the lawsuit, Taylor alleges that in response to a university official’s concern that the university “looked racist,” Conoley stated, “Let them print that it was racism, I don’t care,” the lawsuit said.