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Race To The Bottom has a post covering the courtroom when and after the verdict was read
Excerpt:
The likely next move for CU, according to Lane, is to file a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which is a request to set aside the jury verdict. A Native American elder interrupted Mr. Lane during this press questioning to say, in an emotional voice, “Your words have honored the dead of Fort Clark. You have wrapped a blanket around the Constitution and it doesn’t have smallpox in it.”
CU faculty house organ Silver & Gold Record has a special supplement covering the verdict (ht Leah)
Excerpt:
Churchill spoke briefly to reporters after the verdict, and then said he was leaving to gain "some silence and some repose." He thanked his attorneys and family, and also thanked the "right-wing interests" that he said conspired with the University against him. "What we asked for and what we got, was justice," Churchill said. "The fraud and the University's campaign and collaboration with private right-wing interests, transpired over the past four years, has been exposed for what it is. I owe it in part to [talk-radio hosts Dan] Caplis and [Craig] Silverman. I owe it in part to [former Rocky Mountain News editorial page Editor] Vincent Carroll."
Churchill said the jury found that he was wrongly fired, and that it was a politically motivated firing. "Reinstatement follows rather naturally, wouldn't you say?"
Easy, there, "Doctor." BTW: Leah notes that all the tea-leaf reading in the media about the significance of the One Dollar damages award misses the most obvious: The 20-something jury was simply too lazy to argue any more with the lone holdout who didn't want to give Churchill anything.
...and Churchill's dog, Benjie, has some "inside scuttlebutt" about the trial, filtered through the veracious lips of David Lane:
There’s some inside scuttlebutt here. David Lane got to talk to the jurors after the case, and word has it they had the following couple of salient points to offer:
- Up until the reading of the final instructions by the judge, the jurors thought they were to be deliberating on whether or not Ward had committed academic fraud, pure and simple. It’s an understandable error, given the nature of the witnesses. Their unanimous finding was that Ward hadn’t committed any fraud worthy of the name.
- The jurors were disgusted by the repetition of Ward’s protected speech by O’Rourke, including the quotes from the audio that Craig Silverman kept pushing at O’Rourke; they felt this clearly showed the nature of CU’s witchhunt.
Despite our suspicion that any similarities between what Benjie says Lane says the jury said and the truth are purely coincidental, we can't help but notice that both points are mirror reflections of what we've been saying for weeks: That CU needed to impeach Churchill's "scholarship" witnesses (so easy even two bloggers and a New Jersey cop could do it) and failing to do so vastly befouled CU's jury-perceived motivations; and CU "defense attorney" Patrick O'Rourke's dwelling for more than a nanosecond on Churchill's incendiary speech was a mistake of galactic proportions.
From our Be Careful What You Wish For department: In our July 17, 2006 post "The Rime of the Academic Administrator" we discussed CU's culpability in the Churchill fiasco, and concluded
The University of Colorado at Boulder should be required to employ Ward Churchill for the rest of his natural life; it should be required to wear the albatross of Churchill's rotting academic reputation around its neck until Churchill himself passes away in his sleep, preferably after celebrating his 101st birthday. CU's administrators should have to wake up every morning for the next few decades knowing just how miserably they failed.Update: And a surprisingly astute CBS News analysis concurs (although its conclusion—don't grant tenure—while worthy of serious consideration, is vastly more merciful than ours)
The University is surely to blame for the mess it finds itself in. There is no excuse for the lack of due diligence it performed upon Churchill before it granted him tenure. If school officials had investigated him as fully before they gave him the job they almost surely would have walked away from a deal. But the jury’s verdict means that it’s now too late to do so. Unless Churchill commits murder, or is found to be a drug kingpin, or completely stops showing up to class, CU seems stuck with him until he decides he wants to leave.
Michael Roberts over at Westword attempts a rehabilitation on juror/Valley girl Bethany Newill wherein she—and by extension, her fellow jurors—took their responsibilities seriously.
Excerpt:
CU's O'Rourke spent day after day backing up the university's charges of plagiarism and other scholarly crimes against Churchill -- a presentation that press accounts characterized as boring, but which Newill describes as "pretty interesting." In the end, however, she wasn't entirely convinced that Churchill had committed sins against academia. "I definitely saw where [the university] was coming from on a few of them," she concedes -- but in other instances, "I thought they had really weak arguments. To me, it just seemed like the charges were trumped up. And even if all of those things were true, we didn't feel that was the reason for termination."
[...]
At first, Newill reveals, the jury thought part of their duty was to weigh in on the strength of CU's academic-misconduct evidence. Once they understood they only had to decide whether Churchill had been dismissed for Constitutionally protected speech, the six quickly agreed. But they had much more difficulty reaching a consensus on the damage amount. Newill says she and the other jurors "were all very uncomfortable" with this portion of the verdict. "We even asked the judge if he could do it. We really didn't want anything to do with that."
Columnist David Lindorff over at Counterpunch lies baldly while chortling "Hooray for Juries!"
Excerpt:
The academic committee impaneled to investigate him claimed that Churchill had plagiarized articles, but in truth the works they referred to which Churchill had quoted in some of his work were things he had himself written earlier, either anonymously, or with other writers. He was, in other words, being accused of plagiarizing from himself.
Last but never least, Drunkablog has a bizarre roundup of the blognoscenti's reactions to the verdict
Excerpt:
Ex-Try-Works creep Fire Witch Rising:Huzzah! to the Good Professor!
Oh, and Charlie Brennan of the now defunct Rocky Mountain News, which led this hateful attempt at character assassination, please go fuck yourself forthwith - with the largest rolled up newspaper you can find. Bad dog! You have always been a loser and a coward and you always will be.
Today you and all your witch-hunting scum have gone down in much deserved flames. Prepare to be forever humiliated for your lies. Fuckers.
We won! We won! We won! OH. GOD. JOY! We won! Thank you, Dear Jury of the young. You are all our heroes today.
You can always find enough morons in Denver to sit on a jury.
What has gone unnoticed is the willingness of CU to hire this guy in the first place. CU - in its drive to be a leftist institution, never vetted Churchill and just took him at his word that he was part native american (uncapitalized on purpose since he is neither of these). CU even offered this moron a tenured position without a PhD! Churchill claims his PhD is legitimate even though it was awarded honorarily and not as the result of any scholarship.
This is what happens when you let liberals and leftists run an organization. Now we all have to figure out what to do with him.
CU is an institution run by idiots and is doing its best to turn out more idiots.
MAS1916 () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 08:51
Thanks Mr. Paine for providing the service that this websites offers. You did not succeed in destroying Mr. Churchill however, seems that you might have helped to elevate him and in doing so, your work has backfired. At this point, I would predict that Churchill will be given his back pay as well as his job. As for you, I think you might want to find another easy target, seemed that the present one has evaded you.
glo () - 03 April '09 - 09:10
I think CU will ultimately go the way of Antioch. So will many other colleges and universities.
The demise of Antioch College:
http://ilfpost.org/?p=230
[Wm T Sherman] - 03 April '09 - 10:07
Response to "glo": Seems to me Paine's PB is needed more now than ever before.
Linda Sue Grimes (URL) - 03 April '09 - 10:49
Are you serious glo? Churchill's reputation is now publicly valued at one dollar, which is 99 cents more than it's worth. He'll never get another university job, and from here on out only the fringe ES types will ever cite him as a reliable source. Both sides lost in this case, and deservedly so.
Noj - 03 April '09 - 13:55
Your back-peddling, self-congratulatory "analysis" is disgusting. Let's be clear: after four years of the most intense attack by the right-wing cabal (PB, LGF, KHOW, Rocky Mountain News, O'Reilly, Owens-Brown-Beauprez-Bush, Hannity, Limbaugh, Horwitz, et. al.)Churchill is still standing. The Rocky cannot say the same, nor Owens, Beauprez, Brown. Vince Carroll and Charlie Brennan are limp dick charity cases at the Post and Fox-31, respectively. The Regents, Distefano, Wesson, Getches, and their cronies are damaged goods. It seems pretty evident that Churchill is going to get a big payday - including a new book contract and speaking tour; Lane is going to make out in the six or seven figures for his fees and costs. So, Jim, Ernesto and Co., rationalize all you want to -- you failed, and your star has fallen off the gallactic map.
Rudolf () - 03 April '09 - 14:36
It appears that academia cant depend on the legal system to provide the rigor that it lacks. If academia cant police itself then well keep getting these OJ type trials.
Fred - 03 April '09 - 14:44
I hate to be rude but I would have to say you guys lost. You have all spent the last 4 years of your lives dedicated to ridding the University of Churchill and now it looks like he will be put back in his teaching gig.
I hate to say it this way but what relevancy will this site have after 30 days?
PalmOne () - 03 April '09 - 14:54
Churchill is still standing, but only as notorious example of fraud and deceit in academia. If he was fired because of his offensive essay, that doesn't erase the seriousness of his misconduct. The jury understood this, which is why they valued damage to his reputation as next to nothing.
Joey - 03 April '09 - 15:01
Rudolf - There is no right-wing cabal. A cabal requires oordination and conspiracy, and there was none. Initially, there were individual public reactions elicited by Churchill's very public urination on the graves of 3,000 Americans. After that, there was a belated investigation of misconduct complaints about Churchill that the University had swept under the rug for years; the University was finally embarrassed into taking action. If you read this blog at all you would know that the people who normally post here have little use for the people and institutions that you named. None of the people or institutions you named had the power to get Churchill terminated wrongfully anyway. That is as it should be. All anybody outside the University could do was passive, rather than active: shine a light so that the University couldn't quietly sweep the issue under the rug again.
PalmOne- Nobody 'spent their lives' on Churchill except his more fervent accolytes. Further, this is not really about Churchill in and of himself - it is about a larger phenomenon of institutionalized corruption and falsehood in the nation's universities. Look at the "Durham in Wonderland" site if you want another facet of the bigger picture.
[Wm T Sherman] - 03 April '09 - 15:29
Seems like the only time Team Teabag crawls out from under its rock is to hurl childish and insupportable accusations. It wasn't a member of the "right wing cabal" that engaged in a misleading email romance with Brennan just to rub his face in it publicly at a later date. It wasn't a "right-wing cabal" that felt the panicked need to "disappear" entire websites to avoid public scrutiny. And it wasn't a "right wing cabal" that has invented and then reinvented over and over again a preposterous story of a US Army maliciously intent on slaughtering the Mandans using smallpox-infected blankets.
BTW, Rudolph: I don't backpedal; the public persistence of every post I've written in the past four years kind of, you know, prohibits it. Find a substantive back-pedal in any of my posts, and I'll double Churchill's damages award. Certified funds. Or stamps, whichever The Perfesser prefers.
And I feel no sense of congratulation at being proven right. I feel a sense of despair.
jwpaine () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 15:48
Geez, Jim, seems like I might have hit a nerve. BTW, it's Rudolf, not Rudolph. If you make your challenge interesting, and pledge to double whatever Naves gives to Churchill for front-pay, or other damages, I'll be happy to find examples of your back-peddaling. Otherwise, I'll just consider your post to rest in the same vacuous category of your other echochamber rants.
Rudolf () - 03 April '09 - 15:58
Sorry, Rudolph. A buck is all the jury thought Churchill's reputation is worth (an over-estimation attributable to their tender ages and lack of education); I think I'm being damned generous with my offer to double that.
In any case, back up your accusations, or shut up. Maybe you'd be happier over at Benjie's latest blog, where snarling, sneering, and scoffing pass for intelligent dialogue.
jwpaine () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 16:14
What enterprising people support WC! Ben goes for a $250 dinner and Rudolf puts his hand out for twice Churchill's monetary award, to be determined by the judge. Perhaps these two identify a little too closely with WC, in that they believe they have won (or deserve to win) something.
[Laurie] - 03 April '09 - 16:31
Oh, they've won something already, Laurie: The right to continue to populate their world with more equally ignorant unemployables nurtured into vicious stupidity by The Perfesser.
BTW: Glad you made it back!
jwpaine () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 16:36
Unpurse your lips, Mr. Paine, and take a look at your last month of posts. Are you really gonna argue there's less "snarling, sneering, and scoffing" here?
Ben () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 18:03
Detach your lips from Churchill's ass, Ben, and take a look at the beam in your own eye. I could scoff, snarl, and sneer for eons and not begin approach the vicious nastiness you wisely "disappeared" (twice) over at DBAB Central.
jwpaine () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 18:09
Yeah, wasn't it fun? But at least I rotated my jokes every year or two.
The Perfesser Churchill's Dog Benjie () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 18:13
You have a point, Benjie. Some jokes, like you, are funny once, while others, possessing a grain of truth, are funny always.
jwpaine () (URL) - 03 April '09 - 18:18
Hey Jim! Lane was on Caplis and Silverman today gloating over the juries verdict.
What an arrogant -------- fill in the blanks
Boe Simpson - 03 April '09 - 20:37
I'm not at all convinced that WC will get his job back; the judge is surely intelligent enough to understand that university students should not be taught fabrications by a miseducated individual who insists that ghostwriting to provide sources is a wide-spread and legitimate academic method.
Linda Sue Grimes (URL) - 04 April '09 - 04:14
Thanks for the welcome back.
Thanks, also, for the depressing dose of reality about "The right to continue to populate their world with more equally ignorant unemployables nurtured into vicious stupidity by The Perfesser." I'd rather they paid the man a fortune to make him go away than allow him to ruin more kids' lives.
Laurie - 04 April '09 - 09:25
"It wasnt a member of the right wing cabal that engaged in a misleading email romance with Brennan just to rub his face in it publicly at a later date.
How could a grown man like Charlie Brennan have fallen for such an obviously juvenile trap? I don't know which is creepier - whatever that woman said to bait him or that he needed such a hook in the first place. John Temple, the Rocky editor, was wrong to fire him, though.
Obvious - 05 April '09 - 16:05
You'll get no argument from me on your first point, Obvious. I don't, however, recall seeing anywhere that Temple fired him.
[jwpaine] () (URL) - 05 April '09 - 16:10
Fired / removed from the Churchill story, I mean. The Westword reported as much.
Jim, by "misleading email romance" did you mean to imply that it was ok for Brennan to try and cheat on his wife because he was being misled? I understand you to be a person against cheating.
Obvious - 06 April '09 - 17:16
Policing Brennan's sex life is of less than zero interest to me; if he was cheating, on his own head be it. I'm saying he was an idiot to get involved; I'm also saying the "mystery woman"--and even more so, Benjamin Whitmer, who published the correspondence (since "disappeared")--acted even more despicably than Brennan. But that's Benjie.
[jwpaine] () (URL) - 06 April '09 - 18:19
The correspondence started before Whitmer / Churchill's site, and unfortunately, the letters still exist online.
Of course, it's always possible that Brennan's smarter than we give him credit for. He may have faked the "romance" in a gamble to see what the mystery chick would tell him. He was getting lots of insider scoops at the time -- especially from women in Churchill's past. But whether Charlie was juvenile or calculating, Temple thought he crossed the line and took him off the story. Not the right call, in my opinion, and now Temple's bust, too.
Lesson learned: be careful around these people -- they are cruel and will stop at nothing to win.
Obvious - 07 April '09 - 17:18
No idea about whether Brennan was being clever or gullible, Obvious (although I lean rather heavily toward the "gullible" option), but I do agree with you that Temple erred in taking Brennan off the story (although the Rocky had other good reporters on it, including Kevin Flynn, et al).
[jwpaine] () (URL) - 07 April '09 - 17:24
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