Wild Justice Part 17

Following her denial, Henry asked her why 'they' would suggest that she had. She answered that she had no idea. d.a.m.n her, thought Henry. She won't rise to the bait.

Next, the chair turned to exhibit 5, which he identified as some of the standards used by the doc.u.ment examiners.

Apparently, he had heard and taken note when Trenchant had made a point of the fact that the so-called standards were copies.

"One is an original, here on top--the rest are copies."

Then he continued, obliquely, asking, "have you seen these before?"

"Since these exhibits were pa.s.sed around and discussed yesterday,"

Trenchant answered, "I have seen something that appears like this.

"If you are asking if I wrote them, the answer is that I couldn't say. The one original in the packet looks like my signature but there is no date on it. I don't know when it was written and do not recall writing it.

"These others show dates of a long time ago. We're in the late eighties now and these are dated '61, '69. . ."

"We have some dated more current that the doc.u.ment examiners used.

I can send over to Mark's office for them."

"Oh, you have additional evidence that I was not given before the hearing?

Is that correct?"

"No. Well, I mean no one has looked at it. No one on this committee either. This was handled between Mark and the doc.u.ment examiners. I will call Mark right now and have him bring them over."

Henry left the hearing room and headed up the stairs to the witness waiting room where Mark was standing by for just such emergencies.

You'd think we were the ones on trial, he grumbled to himself.

Why does she persist in this inane manner when I've got everything so well planned out? "Mark, Trenchant's called us on the remaining standards that you sent but that we decided not to include in the material we gave her. Please go and get them and bring them to the hearing room as soon as possible."

As the men descended the stairs, Mark to leave and Henry to return to the hearing, Mark asked, "how did she find out about them, Henry?"

"She was making such a fuss about all the standards having dates so far back that she couldn't identify them and the panel apparently thinks this is a valid reason why she won't identify them.

I had to say the doc.u.ment examiners had more recent samples of her handwriting or. . ." Henry broke off quickly as Helen came out of the room used by Diana's witnesses at the foot of the stairs.

"Hi, guys," greeted Helen placidly. "How's it going? Are you on a break?"

Spare me these emanc.i.p.ated females, thought Henry as he angrily ignored her, waived goodbye to Mark and reentered the hearing room.

Congenial old Mark, badly in need of a conversation fix after Ian had left, approached Helen with a wide smile.

"No," he said to her, "Henry just had to step out for a minute so he could tell me something he needed me to get for him.

"I'm on the way over to the admin building right now. You must be one of the witness for Diana. Sure hope this isn't too traumatic for you all. It really is a terrible thing to have happen at Belmont and I'm sure that as much as you all must like Diana and want to help her that as soon as you understand the preponderance of evidence against her, you'll decide. . ." Strange woman, he thought, as Helen went back into the waiting room and firmly closed the door. Oh well, I might as well go over and get that stuff for Henry.

Inside the hearing room, Henry had ruled that they would go ahead for now and introduce the material when it was brought over.

Continuing her challenge, Diana said, "I repeat again, this is evidence, this is material that was sent to the doc.u.ment examiners that I have not seen. Is that correct? Even though you and Lyle have both a.s.sured me that I was given all the evidence?"

"Well, that only meant that you had all the material sent at that time.

This is additional information that the doc.u.ment examiners brought with them."

"Material that I was not privy to and had no opportunity to question the doc.u.ment examiners on! I consider this most unfair."

a.n.u.se smirked.

"Well," Henry replied, "you will see it presently so that's all right. The committee may now ask additional questions."

Esther wanted to know what was going on in the department.

"We have heard from Lyle, Ian and Randy. What is your perception?"

d.a.m.n the woman, fumed Henry. I purposely warned her against asking that kind of question. He turned his full attention on Diana's answer.

"I will confirm first that there were problems. When I was in the course, I objected to using published material without permission from the publisher and credit to the author.

"I also refused to allow them to use the manual I had written and copyrighted, which they wanted to present to the students as their own after they had added to it.

"I was ordered to do this by Lyle and when I refused, I was threatened with a lawsuit and then told that they would take what they wanted anyway.

"When I first wrote the manual, I offered it free of charge to Ian for the course. He was delighted and most grateful that I had undertaken the project. The manual was well accepted by the students and was used in the course for two years.

"I had no objection to it being used the next year-- the year I was not in the course. But, I would not allow them to revise it or steal it."

Diana Trenchant went on to explain that her manual was strictly concerned with basic radiology information; information that would prepare students for the more demanding courses in radiology therapy that they would encounter the next year.

"One year, I audited those courses so that when I wrote the manual, I could make sure that students would be well prepared for them.

"There was never any question that I supported the presentation of experimental material in addition to the basics contained in the manual.

Actually what they proposed adding to the course was not new. We have been doing this for several years, before Randy came to NERD, using legitimate reference material obtained from publishers."

"Was there any connection between all this and the alleged fict.i.tious SmurFFs?" pursued Esther.

"It does seem rather strange to me that they suddenly appeared at the time Ian and Randy were facing copyright infringement charges--according to Ian's testimony.

Diana continued by telling the committee that there had been no problems until Randy had come into the course. When she worked with Ian, things went fine. They conferred and cooperated with each other. Ian's evaluations gradually got better.

"After Randy came in, I was left out of the loop. He, Ian and Lyle made decisions and I was not informed. For example, two years ago, Randy was made co-director of the course with Ian. I was not told about it."

The door to the hearing room opened and Mark's head floated through the opening. Ah good, thought Henry, just the kind of distraction I need to stop this line of questioning. "We will now introduce this material," he said as he got up to take the large brown envelope Mark produced in the doorway. "The dates on these doc.u.ments, used as standards by the doc.u.ment examiners, are more recent."

Smugly, he handed copies of these doc.u.ments to each of the panel members and then to Diana, keeping one set for himself.

"These doc.u.ments appear to be copies from personnel files,"

observed Diana, looking at the chair for confirmation.

"Yes," Henry confirmed. "They were taken from your personnel file and sent by the university attorney to use as standards."

"Then I would like to see the release I signed so that this material could be removed from my file," demanded Trenchant.

"Release? No release was necessary," Henry looked puzzled and frowned with annoyance.

"Mr. Chairman, you have made note several times that this termination hearing is justified by a certain paragraph in the faculty handbook," Diana replied firmly. "In that same handbook, there is a paragraph stating that no material shall be removed from a faculty person's file without the permission of that person. If you have a handbook here, I will find the exact wording and read it to you."

"Oh, I know what you are referring to and that does not apply in this case," Henry ruled quickly and then turned to the panel and said, "We must get on with it. Are these your handwriting?"