By Nasai Rivas
Editor’s note: This story was changed at 12:33 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, to correct the damages the lawsuit sought.
A 2022 lawsuit that alleges Long Beach State and the 49er Foundation had committed elder abuse, fraud and negligent misrepresentation against a 96-year-old woman has reached a tentative settlement.
Regena Cole, a CSULB philanthropist, alleged the foundation coerced her into donating $25 million to the college.
The lawsuit demanded $500,000 in damages and a court order removing the donation to CSULB.
However, according to an email to the Long Beach Current from Jeffrey Cook, CSULB’s strategic communications associate vice president, the settlement is not yet finalized.
“The University, nor the Foundation, would…comment on the pending litigation at this stage,” Cook said.
According to a report by the Press-Telegram, the tentative settlement was outlined on June 7 and is part of the Regena Cole v. California State University, Long Beach, et al. case.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court case stretches back to Nov. 21, 2022, when Cole and her attorneys filed the lawsuit against the university and the foundation.
According to the lawsuit, the foundation’s former Chief Executive Officer Michele Cesca obtained private information between Cole and her attorney about the donation.
The 49er Foundation then gave Cole an agreement in which she would donate $25 million to the foundation to help build the Robert Bersi University Music Village. She signed the agreement for $25 million on Aug. 19, 2020.
According to court documents, “[The] gift of [$25 million] that must be paid in Mrs. Cole’s life or operate as a debt collector after her death.”
The lawsuit further alleges the agreement ‘placed’ the university and the foundation as ‘sole creditors of her estate.’
According to the lawsuit, the 49er Foundation and Cesca used Cole’s memory issues and age to coerce her into donating the money.
The lawsuit further alleges the foundation isolated Cole from her attorneys in order for her to sign the agreement.
“Mrs. Cole is effectively being held hostage and this fraudulently obtained contract is the ransom,” Cole’s attorney’s wrote in the lawsuit.
Gregory Woods, a CSULB public representative, responded to the lawsuit filed by Cole and her attorneys in a written statement in 2022, according to a report by the Current.
“We are deeply disappointed and saddened that attorneys have filed this ill-considered and unsupportable complaint in the donor’s name,” the statement said.
According to court documents, defense attorneys filed a countersuit stating Cole breached her agreement from 2020 in June 2023.
Alexandra Anfuso, an attorney representing the foundation and CSULB, said she could not comment on the case while on a call with the Current.
The other attorneys representing CSULB, Hayward Kaiser and Andrew Spitser Culp, were not available for comment.
The Current attempted to reach out to Cole’s attorneys for comment, but neither responded.
Despite the legal fight between Cole and the University, before the case, Cole was a longtime benefactor to CSULB.
Both Cole and her deceased husband Bob, worked together in the past to support charities including the foundation.
She had previously donated to the 49er Foundation and in 2008 she donated $16.4 million towards musician scholarships in honor of her husband.
This donation was the largest individual gift in the university’s history and helped create the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
