Ever since the original charges had been made, the Public
Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office had been
investigating the case brought to it by Diana. It functioned
to protect the legal rights of Diana and provide a copy of its
report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
It had been denied access to the previous three day hearing by
the Belmont administration, but was promised the hearing transcript.
After a great deal of prompting, the transcript, all 700 pages of it,
had been sent to the Attorney General's Office as agreed.
It was copied and shared with the attorney representing Diana, Al Garrett.
He was appalled at the way the university administration had handled
the hearing and felt that all that was needed was to hit the
university administration with legal paperosa plentimus
and they would soon see reason.
He was unaware that the age of reason had not yet penetrated
Belmont University. Their axiom was, `Reason? There is no reason,
it's company policy.'
The ensuing legal detritus delayed the reconvening of the
second round of the university hearing, but didn't prevent it.
In the short time given, Diana obtained affidavits from a
prominent document examiner and a promise of testimony
from the university psychologist.
A court reporter was once again recording the proceedings,
but it wasn't Janet. The surroundings had changed also.
Now, they were all sitting around a table in a very large
auditorium in the English Department.
Diana had an attorney present, but university policy prevented
him from doing anything except whisper instructions to her.
Of course, they had talked beforehand and had planned how
the defense part and cross examination would go. Even so,
the attorney was still in the court mode--he had little
or no concept of a university hearing and much of what
went on left him stunned with disbelief and unable to
provide much direction. When he tried, whispering furtively
into Diana's ear to do this or say that, it made Diana
little more than a puppet dangling on one string,
and just as effective. One thing for certain,
thought Diana as the hearing progressed,
someone should tell lawyers about breath mints!
As soon as she could gain recognition from the chair,
Diana requested that the hearing be open. "The purpose
of a closed hearing in personnel matters is to protect the employee.
I waive that protection." To herself, she thought, I know from
experience that I have much more protection in public opinion
than I have as a member of the faculty of Belmont University.
"Interested citizens and the press are waiting outside.
They were prevented from coming in. I respectfully request that
they be allowed to enter." Prevented was right, she thought,
a plethora of Kampus Kops was guarding the door of the hearing room.
Henry was indeed worried that the goings-on in the hearing room might
be observed by an impartial observer and had taken steps to prevent it.
"No." He answered, "It is the policy of the university that
hearings be closed. We will now proceed to the testimony
of the second document examiner."
Henry was pleased to note that while Amos Avery, the handwriting analyst,
was being sworn, the panel members played with the files on the table
in front of them. He had met with each of the women individually
and had whipped them into line. His eyes sparkled as he recalled
their helplessness and his feelings of power.
Henry next proceeded to enter into evidence various letters
and the handwriting documents. Diana, under instructions from
her attorney, objected. Objections which would have been
given credence in a court of law were just ignored by Henry.
The only thing all the legal patter accomplished was to increase
the tension and the red in his face.
Well, I'll just have to bear it, he thought grimly. That sharp lawyer,
Simon Murrain, hired by The Pope to advise them on both hearings
had been adamant. "Always let her speak. You can interrupt her witnesses,
you can even ignore what she says or refuse what she may request.
But always let her have her say. We can't have her complaining that
she didn't get a fair hearing." Henry remembered how he had laughed
at the simplicity of that strategy.
Concerning what she was saying now, Henry wasn't about to pay
any attention. The objections Trenchant was making were important,
having to do with the evidence. The writing used as standards
were still not authenticated. The copies of microfiche files
were almost unreadable due to their being covered with dots and black lines.
In contention were the extra standards that this analyst had requested
since he could not be sure of the authorship of the `suspect' SmurFFs
using the same standards provided to the first analyst.
"You are not following any rules of evidence here,"
Trenchant was continuing. "You are just submitting things
on a whim. You have given this examiner copies--very bad copies--
of material supposedly from my personnel file covering a period
of over twenty years. Even if authentic, these documents contain
the handwriting or printing of at least seven other people,
posibly more, and I see nothing that delineates which of all these
different writings is supposed to be the standard," she argued.
"Some of the writing on these was written entirely by my
daughter or son," Diana held up the documents for inspection.
"These tuition exemption forms were filled out and signed
with my name by either my son or my daughter, for example.
The rest of the writing is by a personnel officer.
"I am surprised that you didn't send samples of writing from
the entire university while you were at it," she finished sarcastically,
disgust clearly portrayed in her voice and on her face.
"This hearing is being held solely to hear the report of this
document examiner. You will be given a chance to comment on his report,"
Henry continued, blithely ignoring Diana's protest.
"Who made these rulings?" queried Diana, prompted by Al.
"Pardon me?" Henry asked.
"Who made the rulings concerning the admissibility of these standards?"
"I am reading the ground rules for this hearing which are contained
in my letter to you. I am entering it into the proceedings."
"So. Who made the ruling? Not the committee!"
"The committee is aware of these things."
"The committee is just going along with whatever you propose.
Why can't you admit that you are making the rules of evidence?
Why do we need the rest of the panel?"
"The committee made the decision and can speak up if they
do not agree." All of the women on the panel busily shuffled
papers and Anuse beamed like a misplaced beacon. The silence
of the panel told it all. Three cowered, two glowed.
Henry was confident.
Well, thought Diana, we knew it would be a struggle.
Turning to the material she and Al had prepared, she read
into the record, once again, that she wanted an open hearing.
That SHE had nothing to hide.
Continuing on, she brought out other legal points that Al
felt needed to be in the record. "We have over and over again
requested documents from the university and been denied them.
You have provided me with nothing with which I can dispute your case.
I am referring to some six hundred student SmurFFs that were referred
to by your witnesses in the last hearing, over thirty times,
yet never once were they given into evidence."
"What are you going on about?" Anuse feigned boredom.
"I am talking about the student SmurFFs that I requested at
the last hearing. The charge was made that the `suspect' SmurFFs
were totally different from normal student SmurFFs and I need
those for you to see that in reality, they are quite similar."
"I'm willing to believe the testimony that they exist and
what they are represented to be. I don't need to see them
in person." Nonchalantly, Anuse destroyed any illusion
of committee impartiality with this remark. The committee's
report to The Pope would remove any doubt that might linger.
Henry called a recess. It always seemed to work to break up the flow.