Henry nervously dismissed Lyle and directed the committee's
attention toward Diana to distract them from further questioning.
"We have finished with the witnesses in this hearing.
If you have a brief summation or anything you want to say in closing,
we will hear it, go ahead," he ordered. "First, however, you and
the stenographer may take a break while the panel confers."
Instead of leaving after he had finished testifying,
Jimbo Jones had gone back to the waiting room to pick up
his belongings. Except for Jonathan, the room was empty
of people now that the hearing was winding down.
"Hello, how goes it," Jonathan greeted him. He had been
making himself available in the committee waiting room a few
hours every day as Henry had ordered. This was so it would
appear that Trenchant had the availability of counsel from
the ombudsman if the matter ever came up.
"Not bad. Henry seems a mite wound up though. Can't understand why.
The whole academic council decided to terminate her, what is he getting
all haired out about?"
"As I understand it," Jonathan offered, leaning toward Jimbo
and lowering his voice into a conspiratorial, confidential tone,
Trenchant has managed to bring forth a good defense and has the
hearing panel pretty well divided. Only Frank Anuse is going
along with Henry. The women are looking at the evidence and they
aren't convinced. Jane confided in me during the last break that
she thought it was possible that Trenchant had been framed."
"What the hell would give her that idea," grinned Jimbo, with a sly wink.
"Quiet, keep your voice down." Jonathan moved away from
Jimbo and closed the hearing room door. "Well, for one thing,
one of the SmurFFs you found was evidently written by a student.
She came forward and identified it. That really casts doubt on
the ability of the document examiners."
"One I found? I just don't understand all this. Everyone keeps
telling me that I found some SmurFFs in my course. Lyle, Henry, Mark
and now you. I don't remember it and I told the panel that just
a few minutes ago."
"You told the panel that? Good God, Jimbo, Henry was
depending on you to confirm that you had found them.
Lyle is probably showing them the note you wrote right now."
"Come off it, Jonathan. Lyle didn't say anything about lying
to the panel and it was that cute Janie babe that asked.
If Trenchant had asked the question, I would have said that I
had found them. No problem. All Lyle asked me to do was write
and date the note last year sometime. Nobody asked me about that."
Thank heavens, thought Jonathan. Aloud, he said, "You'd better
keep that under your hat, Jimbo. From what Jane tells me,
Lyle has been pretty creative with the evidence already."
"So what?" Jimbo replied, expansively. "That's his part of
the scheme. After all, he's the one that wants to get rid of her."
"Yes, you're right, but be careful about saying things like that.
You never know who will hear and try to make something of it.
Oh, by the way, did you hear that Kate left Henry? He said she
was gone when he got home last night--just left him a note."
"No shit. Who'd she catch him doin' it with?"
"Well from what I hear. . ."
The two men gossiped cozily until the members of the panel
arrived to announce that the hearing had ended.
"Proceed with your summary," Henry commanded indifferently
when everyone was back in place at the table.
Diana Trenchant finished making a note and then said, "Yes,
I have some closing words, but first, I want to point out that
I was given no opportunity to present rebuttal witness as you did."
Anuse shifted in his seat, then carefully and slowly, as if
he were speaking to a retarded person, said, "You misunderstand.
They were not rebuttal witnesses. We had them come to clarify
things that your witnesses said."
Bull! thought Diana. Aloud, she continued, "They contradicted
some of my evidence and I was not given a chance to CLARIFY
their testimony with my witnesses."
What is she trying to pull now, Henry moaned to himself,
but much to his surprise, Diana pulled her notes in front
of her and began her closing remarks.
"Now, for the first charge--that I created false SmurFFs.
I have shown that the document examiner erred regarding the
`suspect' SmurFFs they examined. One, at least, was a recognized
student written evaluation. Therefore, their opinion on all
of the documents is open to question. Several witnesses have
testified as to the wrist injury I sustained, showing that I could not
have written the two SmurFFs Lyle said he found in the course last year.
"Also, the `suspect' SmurFFs from previous years are highly dubious
as evidence of anything. They are not dated and there has been
no discernible chain of custody established. Ian could not even
identify them and disagreed with Randy that they were somehow different
from the rest of the evaluations received.
"I remind you again that document examiners are not
infallible and that only a couple of small examples of
my handwriting were submitted to them that were NOT copies.
We have just seen that Lyle had other examples of original writing
of mine. Why didn't they submit original writing as standards
or better yet, authenticate the standards by having them written
in the presence of the document examiner?
"In point of fact, none of the writing used as standards
were authenticated and this makes them moot.
"The second charge, that I submitted these `suspect' documents
as student SmurFFs, is unproven. That is because none of the
student SmurFFs for those years in question can be validated.
This is because of the way the evaluation process is administered.
Therefore, a chain of custody for the so-called suspicious SmurFF's
was not and cannot be established.
"In the 25 years that I have worked at this university, I have never
been accused of dishonesty. My work has not been criticized.
My teaching ability has always been praised. The biggest criticism
that I have received is that I am at times abrasive.
"You have heard enough to form the obvious conclusion about
how I was treated in the department and how heavy my teaching
load was. I hope you will pay attention to the fact that right
here under oath, Lyle, the person who has made these charges
against me, has tampered with the evidence three times."
Jane was impressed. She's right. He attached a note written
by Diana to one of the suspicious SmurFFs; detrimentally misquoted
Ann's evaluation of Diana's performance on promotion sheets
and now this last note which very obviously has a large piece
torn off from the corner. He must have been told they needed
proof that she could write during that time so he tore off
the real date and wrote in one in December. What a scumball.
Diana continued, "I want to thank you all very much for the
opportunity to finally respond and disprove these outrageous
charges. Thank you."
Before Henry could speak, Jane said, "Diana, I was interested
in what you had to say about the F.B.I. and the information regarding
document examination. Is there something further that you would suggest
we look at?"
"Yes. You should research this so-called science or art as I did.
Read about the Hitler Diaries and the White Salamander Papers.
Learn why authenticated, original standards are important. . .
"I also again request that you procure the SmurFFs for the
radiology instructors and course given last year and see how
the testimony you have just heard has misrepresented them."
"Is that it then?" Henry could just barely keep the ugliness
he felt out of his voice.
At Diana's nod, Henry said, "We must end this. I don't think
we'll need any further hearings," said Henry, stacking up his pile
of files and papers and preparing to stand up. "You will hear from us
as soon as possible. Perhaps as soon as two weeks. Certainly no longer
than a month. We will have our report for you and the president then."
That was mid-June.
ACADEMIC JUSTICE