Part 21 (1/2)

Leaning toward the panel, James confided, ”You see, she could one-finger the computer keys with her left hand.

”I filled out the order forms for her children's Christmas presents that year since she was unable to write enough to complete them.

”Around the 22nd or 23rd of December, she could use her hand well enough to write the checks for her bills. It was painful for her and she had some difficulty doing this. We made a joke of it--whether they would turn off the electricity or telephone because the signatures on her checks were not at all like her normal signature.”

Questions exploded from the panel like hail on a tin roof.

”Was her wrist wrapped?” ”Did she have a brace?” ”Did she see a doctor?”

Although Diana had not completed her examination of her own witness, the panel jumped in and took over the questioning.

Henry, feeling decidedly undermined by this testimony, decided not to interrupt this flurry of out-of-order questioning.

He realized that this tactic of interrupting greatly hampered the smooth flow of information a witness had to give. It also served to confuse the witness since questions were coming from more than one panel member at a time. He decided that he would not stop it.

He never paused to think that the transcript of the hearing would show that Diana was interrupted in this manner more than twenty times. This would become significant when the Attorney General made the report of her investigation.

James waited until the panel ran out of questions and started to look sheepishly at one another, then he said, ”Yes, her wrist was wrapped. She did not see a doctor but was treating it herself.”

Now the panel turned its attention toward Diana in one of the frequent times they questioned her in front of a witnesses.

”When did you write the Christmas note to Lyle, then?”

This question directed at Diana came from Esther.

She answered firmly, ”The twenty-fourth, the day before Christmas.

It was still painful for me to write then and I was still wearing the brace.

As you will observe, it is a very short note.”

Well, this is not getting us anywhere, thought Henry, and I'd better put a stop to it. ”I fail to see what all this has to do with the charge,” he complained, petulantly.

Diana was ready for that one and answered succinctly, ”According to Lyle's testimony, he received the unused student evaluation forms for that year from the dean's office on the tenth of December. Lyle testified that they were given out to the students the same day. He could not remember the exact day that he claims to have found the 'suspect' evaluations, but he did say that he found them sometime during the same week.

During that time I could not use my right hand and I was not doing any writing, or printing for that matter.”

”Oh.” The sigh that went with it escaped before Henry could even realize the 'Oh' had departed from his mouth. He looked frantically at a.n.u.se who appeared to have lost it and just shrugged his shoulders at Henry's glance.

Wanting to spare James, if possible, from attack by either Henry or a.n.u.se when they recovered from shock, Diana quickly said, ”Thank you, James.”

As soon as James had left, Diana continued, ”Before I get to the next witness, I refer you again to this memo.”

Trenchant replied. She held the paper aloft in her hand.

”Contained in the memo Lyle wrote to Dean Broadhurst is the a.s.sertion that on March seventeenth, he 'discussed the charges with me and recommended that I resign.'

This is patently false. He accused. He demanded.

He was angry. He yelled. He said, 'you must resign, you have no recourse. The president, the vice president and the academic council have met and demanded your resignation.'

He would not listen to me. He repeated several times that I had been nothing but trouble to him ever since I took him to court six years ago.

”He was abusive and he was angry. He said nothing about a hearing.

When I got a word in edgewise, I told him that I was going to contact the ombudsman and he said that I couldn't--that I had no recourse.

”Later on when he finally stopped yelling and heard me deny his charges, he told me that since I would not resign, there would be a hearing but it wouldn't matter. It was just a formality. I would be terminated, no matter what.”

”You should have brought that up when Lyle was here so we would have his response.” Henry returned vigorously.