CHAPTER 18

Lunch was again catered to the upstairs witnesses' waiting room. A rather pensive panel gathered around the table to help themselves to sandwiches, fruit, cookies and a beverage.

Henry had the floor and continued to speak while they were getting their food. "There is a limit as to how much of this insignificant twaddle we should allow."

"I agree," Frank Anuse said, firmly. "We should tell her that we will hear no more testimony from these witnesses of hers unless it bears on the specific charge--she did write and submit those evaluations. The document examiner was certain of it."

"Well, I don't agree," Jane spoke sharply. "I, for one, didn't find that document examiner particularly convincing."

"How can you say that?" Anuse blurted. "She had impeccable credentials. She's allowed to testify in court. Never been refused, she said. Mark told us that handwriting is as exact and individual as fingerprints."

"I'm not convinced," returned Jane. "She had no independently researched data on her success vs failure ratio. You heard her say, `in her opinion,' she was 100% correct. Bull. Nobody's perfect."

Glancing at the two other women, Henry observed them nodding their heads in agreement. Trenchant had made some other good points, he thought. She picked up on the lack of original standards and cited that rule in the faculty handbook that forbade an individual's personnel file from being revealed to others without the individual's permission. Damn the woman. This hearing was supposed to be a lead pipe cinch and all it had been so far was trouble. I'd better call for Mark to come over and talk to them. Perhaps even have him testify. Mark could say the right things to bring the women around. . .if only he didn't bore them to distraction first.

As he walked toward the phone, he couldn't help but feel a bit chagrined that his own letter had been read back to him--the one he'd sent Trenchant outlining the rules for the hearing. He had meant for it to be intimidating. Didn't think she'd find anyone who'd dare to testify.

Downstairs, Diana and her witnesses were lolling about in comfort,

eating and drinking the results of a MacDonald's run that Roz and Helen had made.

She had been telling them about Lyle's testimony when James suddenly jumped to his feet crying, "say again!"

Repeating herself, Diana asked, "What's the problem."

"No problem. You said he testified that the new evaluation forms were sent up from the dean's office on the tenth of December last year, right? And he found the `suspect' evaluations sometime during that same week?"

"That's what he said. What is it, James? You look so excited!"

" Don't you remember? Don't you remember what happened to you Thanksgiving Day last year--the injury to your wrist, your right wrist? You weren't writing anything until a couple of days before Christmas and even then it was painful for you. You were wearing that wrist support all the time for well over a month."

"My God, I had forgotten that. Are you sure of the dates? I just remember the December labs were hell because I couldn't do the boards."

"Absolutely. I remember coming back from spending Thanksgiving at home and you were soaking your wrist which was all swollen up and remember, you wore that brace and couldn't write and. . ."

"I remember the wrist brace," cried Jennifer. "You had me write things on the board for you at my lab because you couldn't."

"Me too," chimed in Roz.

"James, Jennifer, Roz, will you tell that to the panel in addition to what you already plan to testify to?"

"Sure, no problem." "Betcherass!"

"That will really give this charge against you the deep six along with Sarah's testimony," Roz said excitedly as the whole bunch of happy people left their food and joined each other in a wild victory dance. Premature for sure, but the powerless and the innocent naively take their joy where they can find it.

When the hearing commenced again, the panel appeared subdued, and listlessly turned over pages of notes as Henry told Diana to call her next witness and cautioned her that, "they should be addressing the specific

charge here."

"Just a moment," Jane demanded. "Before we have the next witness, I'd like to ask you a question, Diana. You said earlier that you were not free to call witnesses from your department. Why?"

Trenchant, who was on her way to the door to get her next witness, paused and said, "They asked me not to. They felt it would be impossible for them to testify since they most probably would contradict their chairman."

"You are saying they are afraid to testify?"

"That's correct. Just like you saw Jean was. Her knowledge and belief in me was the only thing that made it possible for her to overcome her fear of losing her position.

"It is much worse for people in my department and for that matter for medical students who have not been allowed to testify. Things can be made very difficult for them."

Esther pursued, "Are you stating that Lyle has discussed this case with the department?"

"Oh, yes. Very definitely. After he accused me, he went in to Ann Biggot's office and told her. My job was offered to two people in the department around the same time. Lyle has told others besides me that this hearing is only a formality. Remember, he's the one that decides the raises."

"What sort of thing could people in your department testify about?" "They could substantiate what I have said about the negligent, careless

way the evaluation process is carried out and how little import is placed on it. They could confirm that the evaluations were often laying around on someone's desk or in the secretaries' office.

"They could explain that the evaluations got mixed together from year to year and unless one happened to be dated, there was no way to separate one year from the next."

"They could tell you the reason for the problems that occurred in the radiology course and affirm that my manual was plagiarized.

"Being right there where the business of the department is carried out, they could tell you that one of Lyle's first acts when he came into the

department six years ago was to eliminate my position. When I protested this act of discrimination to the Attorney General's Office and they brought charges, he claimed that he had only told me that he would keep me if he had the funds. . ."

"You are saying. . .you are painting a picture of suspicion and allegation that are hearsay and unsubstantiated," Anuse interrupted, bald pate aflame with anger.

"Correct. And we've heard tons of unsubstantiated hearsay in testimony from previous witnesses."

"That doesn't matter. We are only interested in these documents, nothing else. Those are side issues and not a part of this investigation."

"They most certainly are a part of it. If what you say is true, the dean would have just written one sentence in his letter. He would have written,

`I want her out of here because. . . .' Instead, he wrote two pages filled with unsubstantiated hearsay and charges of insubordination and dishonesty based on Lyle's accusation and I want to answer them!"

"Nonsense, the charges are clear. You forged seven SmurFFs. The rest was only a chronology of the events."

"But the chronology is untrue and biased."

"No. Everything is based on the testimony of the handwriting witness, we just filter through the rest of the material." Anuse turned to the chair, a bored look on his face. "We waste time with this useless trivia." He had just spent the last few minutes in full sneer, trying his best to beat Trenchant to her knees with the sheer force of his position of power. Forced to desist by the negative vibes he was getting from most of the panel, he took refuge in assuming the victor's pose.

"The panel asked the question, `why didn't I have witnesses from the department.' I merely answered it," retorted Trenchant, pugnaciously.

"Call your next witness." Henry fairly bellowed as he tried for the last word.

"I shall, but first I want to point out that the charges against me contain the words taken from the faculty handbook, `serious breaches of generally accepted moral standards in the profession. . .'

"I submit to you that the copyright infringements committed by Ian

and Randy were also serious breaches of generally accepted moral standard in the profession and Chairman Lyle Stone condoned them.

"Now I'll get my next witness." said Diana, heading once again for the door.

James Prouty walked into the hearing room and looked around. "Take that seat there, please." Henry motioned toward the seat opposite the panel.

"Oh," said James, in a surprised tone of voice. "I understood from someone who had testified earlier that the witnesses sat across from Diana."

"Well. . ." the chair cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. "Things get shifted around, you know. Sit right there and be sworn in."

That James, thought Diana, barely stifling her laughter, trust him to say something disconcerting. He knew darn well that there was a different seating arrangement for the two sets of witnesses because she had told him about it.

Under questioning, James Prouty said that he had rented a room in Diana's home for four and one half years. He could and would affirm that she had written a radiology manual at her home computer.

He could also confirm the great animosity held against her by the former chair of NERD, Jimbo Jones, who was now one of the many associate academic vice presidents. James had been a work/study student in NERD and had heard Jimbo yell and verbally hammer at Diana any number of times.

"As you all are aware," James said, smiling at the panel, "besides the five medical student SmurFFs, there are two SmurFFs that Dr. Jones is said to have found in the Nursing Nutrition course that he lectures in."

"And that the document examiners are sure Diana wrote," Anuse crowed, breaking in triumphantly. "But all this tells us nothing new concerning the charge. This is repetitive, time wasting information. Mr. Chairman, may we get on with it."

"James, were you living in my home last December?" "Yes, I was."

"Would you please tell in your own words why I could not have

printed or written the two `suspicious' evaluations found by Lyle who claims they were written and submitted by me that year?"

James turned his agreeable, smiling face once more toward the panel and said clearly, "Because you sprained your right wrist and were unable to write or use it until shortly before Christmas Day, the 25th."

"How do you confirm that I could not write?"

"Several ways. For example, I saw the swollen condition of your wrist daily and observed your limited use of that hand. Telephone messages for me were left on the printer when they used to be handwritten in notes."

Leaning toward the panel, James confided, "You see, she could one- finger the computer keys with her left hand.

"I filled out the order forms for her children's Christmas presents that year since she was unable to write enough to complete them.

"Around the 22nd or 23rd of December, she could use her hand well enough to write the checks for her bills. It was painful for her and she had some difficulty doing this. We made a joke of it--whether they would turn off the electricity or telephone because the signatures on her checks were not at all like her normal signature."

Questions exploded from the panel like hail on a tin roof. "Was her wrist wrapped?" "Did she have a brace?" "Did she see a doctor?"

Although Diana had not completed her examination of her own witness, the panel jumped in and took over the questioning.

Henry, feeling decidedly undermined by this testimony, decided not to interrupt this flurry of out-of-order questioning. He realized that this tactic of interrupting greatly hampered the smooth flow of information a witness had to give. It also served to confuse the witness since questions were coming from more than one panel member at a time. He decided that he would not stop it.

He never paused to think that the transcript of the hearing would show that Diana was interrupted in this manner more than twenty times. This would become significant when the Attorney General made the report of her investigation.

James waited until the panel ran out of questions and started to look sheepishly at one another, then he said, "Yes, her wrist was wrapped. She

did not see a doctor but was treating it herself."

Now the panel turned its attention toward Diana in one of the frequent times they questioned her in front of a witnesses. "When did you write the Christmas note to Lyle, then?" This question directed at Diana came from Esther.

She answered firmly, "The twenty-fourth, the day before Christmas. It was still painful for me to write then and I was still wearing the brace. As you will observe, it is a very short note."

Well, this is not getting us anywhere, thought Henry, and I'd better put a stop to it. "I fail to see what all this has to do with the charge," he complained, petulantly.

Diana was ready for that one and answered succinctly, "According to Lyle's testimony, he received the unused student evaluation forms for that year from the dean's office on the tenth of December. Lyle testified that they were given out to the students the same day. He could not remember the exact day that he claims to have found the `suspect' evaluations, but he did say that he found them sometime during the same week. During that time I could not use my right hand and I was not doing any writing, or printing for that matter."

"Oh." The sigh that went with it escaped before Henry could even realize the `Oh' had departed from his mouth. He looked frantically at Anuse who appeared to have lost it and just shrugged his shoulders at Henry's glance.

Wanting to spare James, if possible, from attack by either Henry or Anuse when they recovered from shock, Diana quickly said, "Thank you, James."

As soon as James had left, Diana continued, "Before I get to the next witness, I refer you again to this memo." Trenchant replied. She held the paper aloft in her hand. "Contained in the memo Lyle wrote to Dean Broadhurst is the assertion that on March seventeenth, he `discussed the charges with me and recommended that I resign.' This is patently false. He accused. He demanded. He was angry. He yelled. He said, `you must resign, you have no recourse. The president, the vice president and the academic council have met and demanded your resignation.' He would not

listen to me. He repeated several times that I had been nothing but trouble to him ever since I took him to court six years ago.

"He was abusive and he was angry. He said nothing about a hearing. When I got a word in edgewise, I told him that I was going to contact the ombudsman and he said that I couldn't--that I had no recourse.

"Later on when he finally stopped yelling and heard me deny his charges, he told me that since I would not resign, there would be a hearing but it wouldn't matter. It was just a formality. I would be terminated, no matter what."

"You should have brought that up when Lyle was here so we would have his response." Henry returned vigorously. I have to get on top of this hearing and stay there no matter what, he thought.

"Should I have? I'm not a lawyer and I'm not trying to be one. The University Ombudsman told me not to have a lawyer present. He said it would just anger you and turn you against me. He advised me to prepare my case well and present it in good order and that is just what I am doing.

"Right now, I am telling you my side of this story. You have been listening for hours to the NERD's allegations and I have the right to respond. At the beginning of this hearing, you announced that the panel would question its witnesses and then I would cross examine them. You never said anything about debating them. You have already heard from Lyle. Again I remind you that your letter to me, sent in advance of this hearing, contained nothing about specific order of presenting my evidence. Should I read it to you again? You are trying to introduce new rules in the middle of the game."

"Mr. Chairman, I think that we must ask Lyle back here to clear up these fabricated charges we have been hearing," said Anuse in a bored tone. He made a note and then looked toward Henry again. His look plainly said, ignore her.

"Yes," the chair agreed. Then offhandedly, as if he had not heard a word of her argument, he said to Diana, "call your next witness."

Jane watched the interchange between Henry and Anuse with disdain. They are in league together against Diana, she thought and this testimony has thrown them for a loop. They are going to have to start considering the

information we are hearing in a professional, impartial manner now. They have got to concede that these charges by NERD may be false or at the very least, unsupported by real evidence. So many things about this hearing are strange. I've noticed that although the charge against Diana, initiated by Lyle, specifically related to the five `suspect' medical student evaluations, three other documents were sent to the document examiners and were marked as evidence, she mused. No one has questioned how these other documents were deemed `harmful to two young faculty members', as Lyle claimed in his charges. According to the dean's letter, two are `suspect' SmurFFs from the nursing nutrition course and the third is a printed note found by one of Lyle's closest friends. The explanation for the note Henry gave us was that when Lyle told his friend what was going on, she `just remembered' a note found in her mailbox last year that she thought was `suspicious' so they sent that to the document examiners as well.

The examiners concluded that one of the nursing nutrition evaluations was written by Diana. The other and the printed note they were unsure of. I'm beginning to feel like Alice in Wonderland. Jane rubbed her eyes and studied her notes again. How do they expect to prove that this hodgepodge of unrelated evidence threatens two men who only teach in the radiation course?