The Gazette: A multimillion-dollar Judicial Department contract awarded to a high-ranking employee facing firing was not the result of her threatened tell-all, sex-discrimination lawsuit but rather a desire to simply keep her employed, according to an eight-month investigation into the deal released Wednesday.

The $2.5 million judicial training contract awarded to Mindy Masias in early 2019 was the brainchild of three people: Masias, who was the department’s chief of staff, State Court Administrator Christopher Ryan and Eric Brown, its human resources director, and it had been discussed for months before the lawsuit threat ever materialized, the 70-page report says.

The investigation by RCT did find problems, however — in the political structure of the office and a secretive climate that allowed it to foster — and made more than a dozen recommendations for change.

Visit The Gazette for more.