A Southland woman has dropped her lawsuit against Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University in which she contended she was forced to resign from her job as a California-based grants and contracts coordinator for the prestigious educational institution due to harassment by her supervisor.
Lucia Beltre’s attorneys filed court papers Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alexander C.D. Giza asking that the plaintiff’s case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be revived. In a Feb. 11 hearing, Judge Tiana Murillo, who previously presided over the case, agreed with university attorneys who contended that Beltre’s case should have been filed in the Baltimore Circuit Court.
“This was always a Maryland-based position for an on-campus job and plaintiff does not meaningfully dispute this,” Murillo wrote while also staying rather than dismissing the case.
According to Beltre’s lawsuit, she was hired as a grants and contracts coordinator in the anthropology department in early 2022. She contracted coronavirus with bronchitis in March of that year and her symptoms included painful coughing, body aches, headaches and fevers, according to the suit, which further stated that her pulmonologist said she would need three months to recover.
While on medical leave, the university supervisor to whom Beltre reported accused her of making up her illness to get out of work commitments, the suit stated. The supervisor also berated her for having a side job even though it did not violate Johns Hopkins policy, according to the complaint filed in June 2025.
Beltre also found it offensive that the supervisor referred to her as a “girl,” the suit stated. Beltre asked human resources for an accommodation with a job transfer but was told the same supervisor would have to cooperate and approve it, the suit stated. When asked by Beltre for his approval, the supervisor allegedly refused the accommodation and told her to resign.
Beltre, feeling her concerns were being ignored and still feeling the effects of the coronavirus, resigned in April 2022, the suit stated.
But in their court papers, university attorneys stated that Johns Hopkins granted the plaintiff two extensions to come to the campus in order to allow her enough time to recuperate, but she refused to go to Maryland, failed to fill out the paperwork required for her accommodation request and after months of delays chose to quit.