[Ppnews] Churchill Trial Blog: Gov. Owens To Testify

[Political Prisoner News]

TheDenverChannel.com

Churchill Trial Blog: Gov. Owens To Testify Wednesday

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/18897572/detail.html#-

Attorneys Lay Out Opening Statements

<mailto:lance_hernandez at thedenverchannel.com>Lance Hernandez, 7NEWS Reporter

POSTED: 9:11 am MDT March 10, 2009
UPDATED: 7:26 am MDT March 11, 2009
DENVER -- Former University of Colorado professor 
is suing to get his job back, saying he was fired 
him over an essay he wrote about the Sept. 11 
attacks. The school argues that he was fired 
because of plagiarism, fabrication and other 
research misconduct. 7NEWS Reporter Lance 
Hernandez is blogging live from the trial.

9:15 a.m.

Judge Larry Naves gives instruction to jurors. He 
tells them they can take notes if they desire. 
Tells them to remember this is a long case. If 
they want to ask question of the witness, he told 
them to write it down but don't sign it.

9:25 a.m.

The Churchill trial begins with opening arguments.

Churchill's attorney, David Lane, told jurors 
that we want teachers and professors in this 
country to be free to cover whatever their 
conclusions lead them to without fear that Big 
Brother is going to come down on them and fire 
them for telling the truth as they see it.

Lane took jurors back in history to 1633. He said 
Galileo published works based on his then 
"outlandish" belief that the sun was the center 
of the universe, not the earth. He said the Pope 
told him the bible said otherwise. Galileo was tried and put in prison.

Fast forward, Lane told jurors that Ward 
Churchill wrote an essay about why 9/11 happened. 
He said Churchill wrote that "you can push people 
and you can push people and sometimes they push 
back." He said President Bush said, "They hate us 
because of our freedom." Churchill said, "It's more than that Mr. President."

Churchill wrote that America's economic policies 
sometimes hurt other nations, bringing death and 
destruction to millions of people.

He wrote that when we blockaded Iraq as a 
military police force, children in Iraq do have 
access to medicine and clean water and 500,000 
Iraqi children died because of it.

Lane said Madeline Albright called it "collateral 
damage." Ward Churchill called it mass murder.

In his essay, Churchill compared the victims of 
9/11 to Adolph Eichmann, one of Hitler's 
henchmen. He said Eichmann worked for Hitler and 
came up with the final solution, but that Eichmann wasn't a raving anti-Semite.

Lane said Ward Churchill wrote that the victims 
of 9/11 were just going to work doing what they 
were told, which is what many Nazis did.

He said there is a group of ultra rightwing 
politicians and professors who were dedicated to 
ridding universities of people like Ward 
Churchill. He said they fired up the right wing 
media. He said Bill O'Reilly was all over Ward 
Churchill; Sean Hannity, every time, he opened 
his mouth, he was spewing venom about Ward Church, Lane said.

Bill Owens, the governor of Colorado said we must 
fire Ward Churchill, Lane said.

It was an absolute mob mentality.

Lane said officials vowed to look at all of 
Churchill's writings and all his work to find a 
way to get rid of him. He showed jurors a three 
to four foot stack of books written by Ward Churchill -- 4,000 pages in all.

He said President George Bush commented on Ward Churchill, condemning him.

Lane said CU officials sacrificed this man 
(pointing to WC) because they were afraid of the howling mob.

He unveiled a chart showing Ward Churchill 's 
family tree. He said Churchill received awards 
and was named associate professor with tenure in 1991, at CU.

He told jurors that in 2005, BANG! things 
changed. Rush Limbaugh was all over him. Fire 
Churchill, the man should be in jail, they said. 
He needs to be jailed because he is a traitor to 
the United States of America, they said.

Bill O'Reilly -- the same thing. Lynn Cheney -- 
the same thing. Cheney's foundation, Lane said, started the whole thing.

Lane said Churchill was a voice for Native 
Americans. He gave a voice to people who had no voice.

He wrote that the U.S. Army started the small pox 
epidemic among the Indians by giving them infected blankets.

They said, "That is false, that is a lie ... They 
didn't do that Ward Churchill."

Lane said United States' history is written by 
the winners. The winners write history. The 
losers have to live with it. And, the white man 
was the winner of history, according to Gov. 
Owens and according to the University of Colorado, Lane said.

The people who sat in judgment of him had no background in Indian history.

They told him, "You're fired!" In 2005, bang!

But school officials couldn't hang him out to dry 
without going through all the legal hoops, Lane said.

Right now, he's labeled a plagiarist, a guy who 
makes things up. The only way CU could do this 
without getting into a jam is by creating 
committee after committee after committee. "The 
scrub committee." They make all these pious 
noises that, "We are so fair. We gave him all these opportunities."

The head of the committee was a law professor. 
She compared Churchill to O.J. Simpson -- a 
killer, Michael Jackson -- a child molester and 
Bill Clinton -- a liar and cheater.

They say what a monster he is.

9:56 a.m.

The rules only apply to Ward Churchill. They do 
not apply to anybody else. They do not apply to the CU chancellor.

Confidentiality is one of the rules. School 
administrators didn't try to protect one of their 
professors who was under attack. They opened the 
doors and threw him to the wolves, Lane said.

Ward Churchill filed a complaint alleging they 
violated their own rules. He never got an apology.

He has spent numerous days in the American ghetto 
on the reservation. He has written thousands of pages.

This is the first time in four years that Ward 
Churchill has had an opportunity to come before a 
neutral body of citizens with no axes to grind.

It's a first amendment violation to fire him from 
his job. They destroyed him. He is now labeled. 
He's branded, and the only people who can fix it 
are you, Lane tells the jurors.

10:22 a.m.

CU's attorney, Patrick O'Rourke told jurors, "You 
will determine that Ward Churchill lost his job 
for one reason and one reason only. He was 
involved in the worst kind of academic fraud."

The Board of Regents ran for office because they 
want the university to be the best place it can 
be. The president of CU is the school's CEO on a 
daily basis. In 2005 Phil DiStephano was named 
Chancellor. He made strong decisions, but they were very difficult decisions.

He said the faculty senate is one of the 
strongest bodies at the University of Colorado.

These were not people who were going to get 
railroaded. These were not people who were going 
to find Ward Churchill guilty of something he didn't do.

There were right-wing commentators saying, "Fire 
this guy." There were parents saying, "Fire this guy."

There were thousands of people out there who said 
don't punish Ward Church for what he said.

There were people who said we will no longer support the university.

So the university said, "We should meet."

You have to have good information to make 
responsible decisions. And that's what the regents did.

The chancellor said, "I'm going to bring this 
decision back to the campus." He formed a committee.

The chancellor said that to fire Ward Churchill now would be irresponsible.

The chancellor decided that Ward Churchill 's 
essay, no matter how harmful, was protected speech.

He formed a committee. Nobody handpicked anybody to sit on this committee.

O'Rourke said you will hear from Professor 
Ratliffe who will say, "I wanted to be on this 
committee because I wanted to make sure that Ward 
Churchill was not being made an example of for 
something he didn't do. I wanted to make sure he got a fair hearing."

The committee looked at Ward Churchill's work and 
determined that there was falsification... 
fabricating... making up... plagiarism

The committee recommended to the chancellor, "You should dismiss Ward Churchill

None of these committee members were hand picked 
by the administration. They were picked by other faculty.

They told Ward Churchill, "We can't find that 
anyone has inhibited your first amendment rights."

They all said professor Ward Churchill had a right to say what he said.

They said Ward Churchill has engaged in behavior 
that falls below the minimum standards of acceptance.

He took the most basic obligation of a faculty 
member and disregarded it, fabricating 
information, plagiarizing someone else's work.

"Three of the faculty members said, "We find 
evidence to warrant suspending him for several 
years." Others found the evidence warranted dismissal.

He said Ward Churchill lost his job because he 
did something that an 8th grader knows is wrong.

11:27 a.m.

Professor Evelyn Wu-DeHart is called to the stand.

She is a professor of history and ethnic studies 
at Brown University, formerly at CU.

Says ethnic studies emerged from the civil rights 
movement in the 60s and 70s. Says the 
contributions of blacks, Hispanics and Asians had 
been ignored for years. The notion of citizenship 
was reserved for white people.

"When CU tried to recruit me 
 Ward Churchill was already here."

Her opinion: Ward Churchill is one of the leading 
Native American scholars. One whose scholarship 
crosses a wide range. His impact is perhaps the 
single largest of all in ethnic studies.

"I think the worst thing that can happen to a 
scholar is when no one cares about you. When you 
provoke others. That is the highest testament to scholars."

She had written that Ward Churchill was not your typical academic.

He was in academic services. He had already be 
publishing and writing as a scholar. He did not 
have the usual criteria. Absence of Phd., which 
says you have an analytical mind. He was able to 
convince CU to hire him because of his published works.

She said he was an activist... an applied 
scholar. He takes information and applies it to areas of social import.

He was one of the most successful teachers we 
ever had at CU. We felt he should have been named 
a full professor long before he was. Said Ward 
Churchill is a courageous person.

11:57 a.m. Trial breaks for lunch until 1:30 p.m.

1:37 p.m.

power outage

1:47 p.m.

Phil DiStefano takes the stand. He is former 
Acting Chancellor now Provost at CU. He was asked 
about the Regent's rules that state: members of 
the faculty must have complete freedom to 
study... to do research. He said he agreed with them.

He said those provisions mean that school 
officials would be required to protect academic 
freedom. He said if Galileo was teaching 
something that was heretical... they'd have to protect him.

David Lane asked DiStefano about political 
pressure, asking him if former Governor Owens 
went around threatening CU's funding if they 
didn't look into the professor's actions. Lane 
asked if DiStefano agreed that there was a 
howling mob at the gates demanding Ward Churchill be fired. He said he did.

Was WC applauding the 9/11 attacks? DiStefano said no.

Churchill was calling people in the WTC Nazis. He 
called them little Eichmann's right? DiStefano: Yes.

When I say Ward Churchill all the time you know 
what I mean right? Yes. Bill O'Reilly was all over this story right? yes.

Lane said public figure after public figure after 
public figure was calling for Churchill to be 
fired. Sean Hannity, the Rocky Mountain News, 
Churchill did this, Churchill did that, Churchill... Churchill... Churchill.

The Governor said fire him or else didn't he? Yes.

Three regents asked for Churchill's head? I know of two.

Regent Tom Lucero said he wanted Churchill fired because of his 9/11 comments.

Lucero couldn't fire him for that, but in July of 
07 he voted to terminate him after the investigation into WC's academic work.

2:41 p.m.

Lane asked DiStefano if he was looking for 
something to show cause for dismissal? Provost 
responded: I was looking to see if WC overstepped 
his bounds. You were looking for anything to show 
cause for dismissal? Those were your words? 
DiStefano: Yes. The Regents were like yeah! They were behind you? Yes.

Was it your mission to determine if WC's essay was protected speech? Yes.

The professor in charge of the College where 
Churchill taught was asked to help look in to the 
matter. So was the Dean of the law school. The 
law school dean expressed revulsion at 
Churchill's remarks on Jan. 28th... thinks he 
shouldn't be on the faculty. That's the tone you 
get from his e-mail right? Yes.

Then Mimi Wesson... of the same law school then 
becomes the chief of the committee investigating Churchill doesn't she? Yes.

Is it merely a coincidence that the chair of the 
body that found Churchill guilty.. works with the 
Dean who expressed that WC needs to be looked 
into. Yes it's a coincidence. DiStefano said: 
You're making an assumption that because they're 
in the law school that they think alike?

We have the Dean saying we need to look into WC's 
competency and integrity. Then we have Mimi 
Wesson a respected professor under the Dean who 
is comparing WC to a double murdering... child 
molesting liar... who ends up sitting on the 
investigative committee that's pure coincidence? 
Is that what you're saying? I believe it is, DiStefano responded.

DiS was asked about e-mail from prof. Getches 
(sp?) He said we need to take action before the 
media nuts go crazy. It will make it look like it was our decision not theirs.

For the good of his friends and colleagues in the 
Ethnic studies dept. WC voluntarily agreed to step down.

Getches wanted WC suspended

Getches was the dean of the law school and 
believes that competency is in question. Law 
school Dean, David Getches is repulsed by WC's 
comments and didn't believe he should be on the faculty.

A note from Mimi Wesson who works in the same 
bldg as the dean of the law school compares WC to 
a double murdering... child molesting liar.

4:48 p.m.

CU attorney Patrick O'Rourke asked DiStefano if 
he witch-hunted Ward Churchill, DiStefano responded no I did not.

There's a balance we have to look at. Is the 
speech disruptive to the Universtity. There were 
1,000's of letters coming in to the U on both 
sides. Saying his speech had crossed the 
boundries and promoted terrorism, hate speech. 
Facuty said the cornerstone of academic freedom 
is free speech. It turns out he did not cross the 
line. However we found these issues of academic 
misconduct. He admitted having to deal with the 
mob mentality, that's why he pulled the decision 
backk from the regents to the campus. to give time to look at the speech.

Case will continue at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.

Background

A jury was seated Monday to hear Ward Churchill 
's lawsuit against CU, which fired him in 2007. 
Churchill said the school fired him over an essay 
he wrote about the Sept. 11 attacks. But the 
university insisted he was fired after three 
committees of faculty members from Colorado and 
other universities accused Churchill of 
plagiarism, fabrication and other research misconduct.

Churchill's essay said the 2001 terrorist attacks 
were triggered by an unjust U-S foreign policy 
and likened those killed in the World Trade 
Center to "little Eichmans," a reference to Nazi Adolf Eichman.

Churchill was a tenured ethnic studies professor 
who claims to be part American Indian.






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