Book: Wild Justice

R >> Ruth M. Sprague >> Wild Justice




Henry made a monumental blunder and didn't realize it until it was
too late. After consistently arguing that the university would
never send student handwriting off campus to a document examiner,
he proposed just that! "We have samples of your handwriting
in the university files that we can send to have checked," he threatened.

"No. You cannot do that with student files. You have no right
to send my records away like that. You already have sent my SmurFF
and you have that as a sample of my writing if you need it."

"Are you afraid?" Henry tried for intimidation to cover his faux pas.
"Of what?"

"Yes, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of who's on the other side of this.
I'm afraid of who is lying about Dr. Trenchant and what could happen
to me for coming here to testify."

Once again, Anuse led her through questions, to explain how
she had seen the copy of this evaluation. Finally he said,
"and what did you think when you saw it?"

Her answer, delivered in a soft but firmly decisive tone,
landed like a bombshell in the midst of the panel. They sat in
stunned silence for a beat and then the chair abruptly dismissed her.

"I was shocked," Sarah said, earnestly. Tears, long held back
now slowly slid down her face, marking the planes and valleys
with ripples that winked on and off reflecting the room lights
"And I didn't want to even say it was mine. But I did, because it was."

Diana left the hearing room shortly after Sarah to ask Helen,
her last witness, to come in. The whole group was in the hallway
gathered around Sarah as she came out of the hearing room door.

"What did they do to her in there," demanded Roz, angrily.

"They were pretty nasty. They fired questions at her so fast
that she didn't understand what they were asking half the time.
They all but called her a liar, poor kid," answered Diana.

Helen came over. "You tell them I'll be in just as soon
as Sarah is calmed down. Sadistic bastards!"




Chapter 22


Diana returned to the hearing room alone and sat down.
Addressing the panel, she said firmly, "My next witness will be
in shortly. She is helping Sarah because you upset her so much."

Anuse and Henry looked pleased. The women were anxious
and concerned except for Esther who appeared puzzled.

Shortly thereafter, Helen Schauer marched into the room and
took the witness chair as if she owned it. Her Teutonic
ancestors would have been proud. Helen, at age thirty,
considered herself a responsible adult. She owned property
and was very serious about her abilities and her nursing studies.


She had begged Diana to let her come as a witness. A little
taller than average, she was a strong looking woman. Blonde hair
framed a face that, while not beautiful, reflected a healthy
radiance that enhanced her image of strength. Now, sitting
there, exuding confidence, she gave her name and was sworn.
Her testimony should have been important, but Diana wasn't too
certain that the panel would listen. It backed up what Roz
had to say about the feelings of the medical students concerning
the radiology course.

The most Diana hoped to accomplish from this testimony was
to have the committee order NERD to make available the course
and instructor evaluation for the previous year. That was
the year that Lyle had claimed the students loved the course
and the instructors. That was the year Diana did not teach in it.

"Are you acquainted with any medical students who took
the radiology course this last year?" questioned Diana.

Helen testified that two of the rooms in her home were rented
by medical students. "The gist of the conversation around
our dinner table was that they felt the course was a complete
waste of time. `Most of the year, it seemed as if we knew more
than the instructors,'" she quoted one of them as saying.

Jane couldn't wait for Diana to complete her questioning
of Helen and broke in with, "Would the students come and
talk with us?" She pretended to forget that medical students
were not allowed at the hearing.

"No. Medical students were told they should not testify.
They did request that I tell you that both she and my other
roomer gave a bad evaluation of the course in the SmurFFs
they filled out this year. They hoped that by doing that,
the course would be changed and improved for the students next year.
You have been told that all the evaluations were positive that year."

Henry appeared to misunderstand. "If they didn't think their
evaluations were done correctly, they should go to the dean."
He said to Helen, severely.

"Huh? I didn't say anything about them feeling their evaluations. . .
what do you mean?"

"If there is a problem with their evaluations,
they should go to the dean."

"I didn't say there was a problem. I don't know where you
are coming from. I will repeat what I said since it appears
that I have been misunderstood. They told me that they had filled
out a very negative evaluation on the radiology course, and that
they knew that others in the class did also because there was
great dissatisfaction with the course."

Henry immediately reminded the panel members that this was all hearsay.
It will be trouble, he thought, if anyone on the panel asks for the
SmurFFs for the year Diana didn't teach that course. Lyle doesn't want
them seen and for good reason. He and his boys have perjured themselves.

No one seemed to have any more questions. Even Anuse appeared wary.
This was one witness that they weren't going to confuse. She not only
had both feet planted on the ground, she looked as if she'd enjoy planting
the panel under them. Noting that there were no more questions coming,
Diana thanked her and said, "Looks like we are finished with you, Helen."

"You may be finished with me, but I am not finished with you!"
She took in everyone in the room with that remark, surprising Diana
as much as anyone on the panel. Even Janet looked up with
a startled expression.

One could almost hear the horns of the Valkyrie sounding as
a Brunnhilde spirit sparkled in the body of this nursing student.

"I am concerned and distressed," she continued. "First,
for how you treated that young woman who testified before me.
I have known Sarah for several months and she is as honest
and sincere as anyone I have ever known.

"You know what she told us when she came out? She said you
didn't believe her because you had already decided on the basis
of the graphologist's report. She said it wasn't fair. That person
swore only to an opinion. She, Sarah, had sworn to a fact.

"Also, from what the other witnesses have told me and what
I have just experienced myself, I don't believe you want to
find out the truth. You just want to terminate our teacher.

"No, I am not finished yet." Helen held up a warning hand to
Henry who was about to protest, palm flat out like a traffic cop.
"I have a BA in German and I am working toward a BA in nursing,
and I am disgusted, I am really disgusted at what happened with
my nutrition course evaluation. Despite what we were told in the
classroom concerning the use of the evaluations for the course
and professors, they were sent off-site to a graphologist. . ."

"Only a few, there were only a small number," insisted Henry.
Good Lord, he thought, abashed, I never should have admitted
that any were sent.

"So what! Maybe mine was one of them. You shouldn't be breaching
student confidentiality to expedite some personnel matter.
And let me tell you, I'm not the only one in the class that feels that way.
You have deceived us and we will not fill out any more of those forms
unless we are forced to."

"But you must understand," urged Esther, "no other writing
by students went out at the same time. There would not be any
chance that anybody would know who was the person who wrote them."

Esther really was out of it, thought Annette.

"That is totally irrelevant." Helen replied firmly. "The
point is our confidential evaluations were sent off-site.
I think a lot of damage has been done. It is unconscionable.
If we ever do fill out another evaluation form, it will be
completely sterile so it can't be used to hurt anyone by an
irresponsible administration. That is what many of the med
students did in their last evaluation. They just marked
everything average and typed all comments. That is why you
haven't seen any of their SmurFFs from that year."

"Thank you, Helen." Diana stood up and walked around the table
to open the door for her.

"We'll take a short recess," Henry announced.

During this recess, he told the panel that he had decided to adjourn
the hearing until the next day.


Henry had just reached the hallway of his home when the
phone summoned him with its strident demand to be answered.
Loosening his tie with one hand, he picked up the instrument
with the other, "Yes, hello, Tarbuck residence."

"Ah, good. You're home, Henry." This superb example of
deductive reasoning delivered in the imperious manner of
a self-appointed earth-god could only be The Pope.

"Yes, how are you, John?" Henry had pulled off his tie and
was settling himself comfortably in the chair next to the phone.
"Sorry I missed you when I returned to the office, but we decided
to adjourn early so I did a few errands I've been putting off
and then I came home."

"No problem, Henry. I just wanted to check with you to see
how things are going. Mark said there was a bit of a dust up
over the file material he sent the document examiners as standards?"

"Yes. Trenchant is making an issue of every little thing
she can think of. Actually, I think she must have some outside help--
someone is advising her. Perhaps even someone at Belmont."

"Giving you a lot of trouble, is she? Slap her down, Henry,
slap her down. We've got her good on this one. Mark tells me
the document examiner was one hundred percent sure that
Trenchant wrote those things," The Pope boomed expansively.

"That's correct. The only thing is the three women on the
panel don't place much confidence in the examiner's ability
and right now they aren't accepting her testimony. Besides that,
Trenchant has a student witness who claims that she, the witness,
wrote one of those SmurFFs our analyst said was written by Trenchant."

"My God. That doesn't sound good at all. I thought Mark
said handwriting analysis was as foolproof as fingerprints."

"Well, that's the legal argument lawyers use. Apparently,
they aren't. Trenchant gave us two cases as examples of these
so-called experts being fooled. One was concerning the Hitler
Diaries and another she called the White Salamander Affair.
She also listed several other sources for the panel to check on."

"What are you going to do? You've got to whip that panel in line
and do it fast, Henry, we're in this thing too deep to back off now."

"I know, and I'm on top of it. Mark is going to testify
concerning his experience as an attorney with handwriting
evidence. Also, I've ruled most of Trenchant's testimony
and that of her witnesses hearsay. That cuts out a lot of
potentially damaging information.

"Did you know, John, that those two guys who brought the complaint
against her in the first place had plagiarized several textbooks
as well as Trenchant's stuff and that both the dean and Lyle Stone
knew about it?"

"Penny ante stuff, Henry. Everybody copies material for their courses.
That's why every department has a copying machine."

"Well this sure sounded serious. They photographed a whole
atlas and presented it to their class as their own work."

"So? It's just Trenchant's word, isn't it? Who's going to
believe she isn't just indulging in sour grapes?"

"The whole panel, that's who. That stupid son of a bitch,
Ian, admitted to it."

"Don't worry so, Henry. Surely you can explain that away
as a misstatement on his part. He can just say that he didn't
understand the question and. . ."

"I've already done that with the panel but I can't keep up forever
explaining away every boner they pull. I've got to call Lyle back
to testify again and the panel wants to hear from one of his faculty,
Ann Biggot, and from Jimbo as well."

"What can I do to help you, Henry."

"Get on their asses, please, John. Those dilettantes
in the medical school just made a very poor showing.
They weren't prepared or. . .would you believe, John,
that Lyle couldn't even remember how many SmurFFs he was
given and the dean contradicted a vital part of his testimony.
Both Ian and Randy stunk. Please, lower the boom on Lyle
and the others slated to testify tomorrow. They have got
to do their homework."

"I'll get right on it, Henry. Don't worry now. Just remember
that we can keep everyone--reporters, local, state and federal--
out of our business simply by claiming academic privilege.
There is nothing we can't explain away. Nothing we can't
make disappear if we need to."

"OK, John, and thanks."

"Right. Good evening, Henry."

Henry hung up the phone and stretched. Strange, he thought,
sniffing the air experimentally, I don't smell anything cooking.
Wonder if we're going out for dinner. For that matter, I wonder
where Kate is, haven't heard her moving around. Oh, well, she's
probably in the back yard.

Resigning himself to the distinct possibility that he would
have to get ready for another night out, he went in search of her.
The kitchen first, he decided. I'll grab something out of the
refrigerator to eat and. . .what's this note on the table?
Henry started to read it and then sat down heavily in a
nearby chair to finish reading. "Be damned," he breathed.
"She's left me."




THE HEARING - DAY 3



Chapter 23


The next morning, the panel members looked relaxed and confident.
Henry hoped there would be now more gaffes, especially since
The Pope had gotten after them. He congratulated himself
for thinking to ask. He knew from experience that The Pope
could be very persuasive.

The first witness called by the panel was the university attorney,
Mark Rogers. He entered the room, spoke to everyone there, addressing
them by name, and took the seat indicated just across from Diana.

Mark would never be called handsome. He carried a bit too
much weight in his face for that. He was, however, garrulous.
This part of his character endeared him to the administration
that he served so well, since his long winded approach to any
problem brought to him, bored most people to death before
they got any answer.

This saved the administrators the problem of dealing with
most complaints brought by faculty and staff. If the
administrators wanted some legal answers, they contacted a real
lawyer, usually Simon Murrain, from a high priced law firm in town.

Mark had never had any success as an attorney in the real world,
but here in the cloistered world of academia, he flourished.
In the rapidly changing meaning of words, Mark knew which side
of the butter the bread was on. He could lie or tell the truth
with the same absolute conviction.

And now he was giving an ample demonstration of this to the panel.
He knew that he had been called in because Henry was terrified
that the document examiner's evidence had been overturned by
the defense testimony. He also knew that the three women
on the panel were not disposed favorably to the analyst
who had come to testify. Well, by golly, he thought,
old Mark will put out the fire.

In answer to a simple question, Mark replied by starting from
when he graduated from law school and tracing his entire career.
Along the way, he revealed, he had discovered these
particular document examiners.

For all his verbosity, he was convincing. Henry was pleased.
After all, he was an attorney. Who would know better how courts
and evidence worked than an attorney? Then too, Mark had been
the one to send the `suspect' evaluations to the analyst that he,
himself, had recommended. Mark had ordered the material from
Diana's personnel file, so he could attest to the legality of it.

Jane observed that the other members of the panel, immersed in his tale,
seemingly failed to realize that he confirmed several interruptions
in the chain of custody of the documents he was referring to.
Most notable was when he was asked to identify the various packets
of handwriting evidence that was marked as exhibits for this hearing.
He either, "hadn't reviewed them closely enough to determine. . ."
or claimed that he "honestly didn't recall who I received the note
from (the note Lyle's friend had found `strange')," as answers
to direct questions from the panel.

Henry, hoping to create some clarity, put the finishing touches
on the breaks in the chain of custody of the `suspect' documents
that were being discussed. "Oh, the problem here must be because
some of the packets have been separated apart."

Jane noticed that Mark also had only vague recollections as to
when all these things took place. He prefaced every phrase with,
"to the best of my recollection" or "at best I can recall,"
in proper attorney fashion, proving that he had, after all,
gotten something out of law school.

Having agreed, with Henry's prompting, that he did remember
getting five radiology SmurFFs from Lyle, two nursing nutrition
SmurFFs from Jimbo, he was handed a note, referred to as `Lyle's
friend's strange note' by Henry and asked, "And did you also sent
the document examiners this note?"

"This would appear to be the original note; the only thing
that I have seen is a copy of this note. I don't believe
until now I had actually seen an original."

Good Lord, thought Jane. Surely someone should question this.
The document examiner testified that ALL the `suspect' documents
were originals and now Mark, the guy that sent them to the examiners,
is saying he has only seen a copy.

He's vague and unsure of most everything he claims he was involved
in and most of his evidence is what someone else told him or that
he `had assumed'. This was the kind of testimony that Henry had
been so critical of when the defense witnesses were examined,
calling it second hand information. Apparently, coming from
the university attorney, it is considered to be all right,
Jane commented to herself. At one point, with help from Henry,
Mark brought forth information that Jane thought might be triple hearsay.

He said, "I remember now that Jimbo told me that Lyle told him
that Lyle's friend had found the note."

Not a voice was raised in complaint from the panel.
And not from me either, thought Jane. I'm not sticking
my neck out when a lawyer is testifying.

Henry appeared to be pleased. Mark had done well enough
even though he had been a bit shaky on dates. Anyway, the panel
didn't seem to notice. He had established handwriting analysis
as nearly infallible--not by evidence, not by proof, but solely
because he said so.

He was pleased when cross examination by Diana was continually
broken into by the panel. As a result of this, the question
of the dates when these things happened was never really established.
As things stood, Lyle, Randy and now Mark had all given conflicting
dates concerning when these documents were sent out for analysis,
when each received them and what each received.

However, under tenacious questioning by Diana, Mark divulged
that the `strange' note, apparently sent as an afterthought,
had only been looked at by the examiners the day before coming to testify.
That was why he had only seen a copy of it since the original was given
to them on their arrival by Henry. Their opinion was not conclusive,
but they thought it probable that Diana had printed it. They were wise
to vacillate on this, Mark observed, since their supply of printing
standards was very limited.

Because of the way Mark presented this, the panel was left
with the impression that had there been enough standards,
the document examiner would certainly have found that Diana
had printed it.

An angry exchange occurred when Diana protested strongly
that here was another piece of evidence that she was surprised
with after being told that she had received all of it.

Henry smiled vacuously and said, "It was introduced yesterday."

"I never saw it."

"It was in the analyst's report for you to see."

"Now you tell me."

"You could have read it anytime."

"When? Every time there was a break, you shooed me out of here."

"We needed this room to confer."

Anuse broke in to hammer home another spike of explanation in the
maze of questionable activity engaged in by the administration.
"Mark, from a legal point of view, can an employee's personnel
records be sent out for this type of analysis without the
individual's permission or verification?"

Mark answered, again with the qualifier, which was not
deemed noteworthy by the committee members. "In my opinion,
they may not be used for just any purpose, but they certainly
may be used for those purposes."

Well, sure. Ask the guy who did it if it was all right.
Some legal opinion! thought Diana.

It was, however, the benchmark, the criterion of the
prejudice exhibited by the hearing panel throughout.
The Attorney General, after her investigation was complete,
wrote in her report that, ". . .the panel utilized a procedure
in which guilt was not investigated, but assumed. The university
placed the burden of proof on Diana Trenchant to prove she was innocent,
but denied her the evidence to do so.

"In fact," The A.G.'s report continued, "the process was
so fundamentally unfair and reflected such an aggressive
determination by the university to discharge her, that
its actions have strengthened the inference of discrimination."




Chapter 24


After Mark had left, Associate Academic Vice President, Jimbo Jones
was sworn. He had held the chair of NERD for many years,
then when Lyle took over, Jimbo was moved to the central
administrative post. Henry smiled wryly, hoping for the best
because no matter how poor a performance was turned in by senior
administrators, they were never fired--they knew where too many
bodies were buried. They were kept around and use as needed
to plug gaps and cover asses, especially their own. . .

Having few duties as a Vee, Jimbo lectured, teamed with Lyle,
in the nursing nutrition course. He used to refer to them
as a dog and pony show. The students thought of two other
animals that would have described the situation better,
since neither man was greatly liked.

This was mainly because both had a low opinion of undergraduates,
felt it was beneath them to lecture at this level and didn't try
to hide their opinion from the students.

Lyle and Jimbo gave these few lectures because the university policy
of increasing administration personnel and research faculty while
decreasing teachers had decimated the ranks of competent instructors.

Upper level administrators like Jimbo were paid in the six figure category.
A few professors received fifty grand a year; most substantially less.
A limited number of excellent teaching faculty worked their butts off
teaching course after course for peanuts. The ever burgeoning,
corpulent administration and research people had light duties
and lots of play time--to say nothing of having the money to play.

At the time Diana was employed at NERD, it was not unique
for the research professors to spend one or two afternoons a week
on the golf course, lake or ski slopes. Any research accomplished
mostly fell to the technicians paid by a grant or the university.
Citizens who donated money for research into various diseases
would be astonished to discover how little of their money went
into the research, and how much went into paying administrative salaries.

At Belmont, Friday afternoons turned into happy hours as medical
research professors with their light teaching loads relaxed
together in the conference room recuperating for the weekend.


When Jimbo was asked to identify the two evaluations--
these being the two from nursing nutrition that Lyle had said
Jimbo had brought to him, he professed not to recall how they were
found or where. "I don't remember if I found them or who found them,"
he stated. "I have seen them before, but I don't know who discovered them."

Henry started to get nervous. This damn jerk who found
those two SmurFFs professed no recollection of it.
He hurried into the breach. "What you are saying, Jimbo, is that
either you or Lyle found them but you don't remember which."

Even with this prompting, Jimbo couldn't hack it.
He looked over at Henry and smiled without speaking.

"Yes, thank you. Of course, that's it." Henry testified
for him and then tried to prove through Jimbo's testimony
that Diana had a history of conflict with department members.

Once again, Jane observed, no examples were given. The names of
the individuals involved in these alleged conflicts were not given
so there was no confimation of the testimony. When she tried
to get specifics on these conflicts, Jimbo answered that,
". . .it involved the kind of facility utilization problems
that one runs into in a small department."

Pursuing this, Jane asked, "Did they have anything to do
with running a course or what should be taught in a course?"

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