Churchill's lawyer wants appeal heard in Denver
Lane hopes to find sympathetic jury
Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
Published July 26, 2007 at midnight
Ward Churchill's attorney is seeking a more sympathetic jury by taking the case of the fired University of Colorado professor to Denver District Court rather than to a federal judge.
Federal judges tend to defer to the personnel decisions of university governing boards, especially if the boards followed due process as set forth in their own operating procedures, legal experts say. But a local jury is less predictable.
"There's no way to know - some will, some won't (defer to the governing board)," said Denver attorney Martha Tierney, who practices civil rights law.
Churchill and his lawyer, David Lane, have been effective with Denver juries before. Lane won acquittals for eight activists, including Churchill, who were accused of disrupting a Columbus Day parade in 2004.
Lane sued Wednesday in Denver District Court, a day after the CU regents voted 8-1 to fire Churchill for academic misconduct, including plagiarism and fabricating both historical events and sources cited in his essays.
The suit claims the academic misconduct charges are a pretext for punishing Churchill for his controversial political views. Those views are protected by the U.S. Constitution, the suit claims.
"We stand behind the regents' decision and will fight this in court," said CU Vice President Ken McConnellogue.
Lane said Tuesday, even before the regents' vote, that he would sue in Denver District Court, rather than federal court, to get a more sympathetic jury.
A federal jury would be drawn from a pool that includes rural areas where Churchill's views would not be popular, Lane said. Many experts had expected him to bring the case before a federal judge, rather than a jury.
Denver attorney Scott Robinson said Lane may be overestimating the acceptability of Churchill's views, even among a more tolerant Denver jury pool.
"It will come out - what did he say?" Robinson said.
That would include his comments comparing 9/11 victims to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who helped carry out the Holocaust.
"He has the distinct disadvantage of offending almost everyone with the remarks he uttered," Robinson said.
morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209
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