"Proceed with your summary," Henry commanded indifferently when everyone was back in place at the table.
Diana Trenchant finished making a note and then said, "Yes, I have some closing words, but first, I want to point out that I was given no opportunity to present rebuttal witness as you did."
Anuse shifted in his seat, then carefully and slowly, as if he were speaking to a retarded person, said, "You misunderstand. They were not rebuttal witnesses. We had them come to clarify things that your witnesses said."
Bull! thought Diana. Aloud, she continued, "They contradicted some of my evidence and I was not given a chance to CLARIFY their testimony with my witnesses."
What is she trying to pull now, Henry moaned to himself, but much to his surprise, Diana pulled her notes in front of her and began her closing remarks.
"Now, for the first charge—that I created false SmurFFs. I have shown that the document examiner erred regarding the 'suspect' SmurFFs they examined. One, at least, was a recognized student written evaluation. Therefore, their opinion on all of the documents is open to question. Several witnesses have testified as to the wrist injury I sustained, showing that I could not have written the two SmurFFs Lyle said he found in the course last year.
"Also, the 'suspect' SmurFFs from previous years are highly dubious as evidence of anything. They are not dated and there has been no discernible chain of custody established. Ian could not even identify them and disagreed with Randy that they were somehow different from the rest of the evaluations received.
"I remind you again that document examiners are not infallible and that only a couple of small examples of my handwriting were submitted to them that were NOT copies. We have just seen that Lyle had other examples of original writing of mine. Why didn't they submit original writing as standards or better yet, authenticate the standards by having them written in the presence of the document examiner?
"In point of fact, none of the writing used as standards were authenticated and this makes them moot.
"The second charge, that I submitted these 'suspect' documents as student SmurFFs, is unproven. That is because none of the student SmurFFs for those years in question can be validated. This is because of the way the evaluation process is administered. Therefore, a chain of custody for the so-called suspicious SmurFF's was not and cannot be established.
"In the 25 years that I have worked at this university, I have never been accused of dishonesty. My work has not been criticized. My teaching ability has always been praised. The biggest criticism that I have received is that I am at times abrasive.
"You have heard enough to form the obvious conclusion about how I was treated in the department and how heavy my teaching load was. I hope you will pay attention to the fact that right here under oath, Lyle, the person who has made these charges against me, has tampered with the evidence three times."
Jane was impressed. She's right. He attached a note written by Diana to one of the suspicious SmurFFs; detrimentally misquoted Ann's evaluation of Diana's performance on promotion sheets and now this last note which very obviously has a large piece torn off from the corner. He must have been told they needed proof that she could write during that time so he tore off the real date and wrote in one in December. What a scumball.
Diana continued, "I want to thank you all very much for the opportunity to finally respond and disprove these outrageous charges. Thank you."
Before Henry could speak, Jane said, "Diana, I was interested in what you had to say about the F.B.I. and the information regarding document examination. Is there something further that you would suggest we look at?"
"Yes. You should research this so-called science or art as I did. Read about the Hitler Diaries and the White Salamander Papers. Learn why authenticated, original standards are important....
"I also again request that you procure the SmurFFs for the radiology instructors and course given last year and see how the testimony you have just heard has misrepresented them."
"Is that it then?" Henry could just barely keep the ugliness he felt out of his voice.
At Diana's nod, Henry said, "We must end this. I don't think we'll need any further hearings," said Henry, stacking up his pile of files and papers and preparing to stand up. "You will hear from us as soon as possible. Perhaps as soon as two weeks. Certainly no longer than a month. We will have our report for you and the president then."
That was mid-June.
It is the first of July. The committee has met two times since the hearing ended. The first time, the split was three to two. The three women were resolute that there was not enough evidence to believe that Diana had written the documents. They did not put much credence into the report of the document examiner and they didn't believe Lyle.
Henry could not and would not agree to write the report announcing this to The Pope. His instructions were clear—get Trenchant. Seeking distance, he suggested that they should, in any event, wait for the complete transcript of the hearing. When that had arrived and everyone had refreshed their memories, they would hold another meeting.
The second meeting, held two weeks later, lasted four hours. By the end of the session, everyone was tired and angry and no one had moved from their original position. It was a battle of the transcript. Not only had Anuse and Henry burned the midnight oil preparing for the meeting with suitable quotes from the transcript, but the same could be said of Jane, Esther and Annette.
As tempers, which had so far been under control, flared and threatened to widen the gulf between the two sides, Henry realized that the arguments were just solidifying the opposition and, damn it to hell, they were the majority! Since the handwriting evidence was so shaky, he dared not force the issue. He would find another way.
He quickly called an end to it, told them tersely that he would let them know when the next meeting would be and then before anyone else moved, he left the room.
August slipped into September.
What's happening with the hearing? Everyone was asking. No one had an answer.
Then the president of N.O.W, Ellie Smeal, came on campus to give a speech. The room was packed with women from all over campus. Afterwards, Esther saw Diana and went up to her.
"What is going on? Have you heard anything?" she inquired.
"You're the one on the committee. I haven't heard anything since the hearing ended. You guys told me a month, tops. Haven't you been writing the report?" Trenchant answered tersely. She was becoming increasingly strung out by the delay and by the obvious fact that the committee chair had once again lied to her.
"Oh," said Esther, alarm showing on her pudgy face, "I'm not supposed to talk about it. I haven't heard anything." She finished, walking away leaving Diana more in the dark than ever....and more apprehensive.
October dropped its leaves.
November brought an early snow.
Christmas flashed brightly, dulled and stood aside for the start of a new year.
It had been nearly seven months since the hearing had ended but Henry had not been idle. After the debacle of the second meeting of the panel, The Pope and Henry had decided to send the material away for confirmation by another document examiner. The women on the panel were not privy to this information. "If they can't cooperate, leave them out in the cold," was Henry's decision.
"How many had you contacted before you found this one, Henry?" Frank Anuse had stopped by Henry's office in the administration building at Henry's invitation. A great deal of time had gone by and he had been getting edgy with all the questions aimed at him by concerned faculty. It was great to have some positive results. Even though he couldn't broadcast them, he could give his inquisitors a knowing look and indicate that it was in the bag.
"This makes the fourth. The bastards take forever to make up their minds. They say they are busy with other analyses, but you'd think with all we're paying them that...." Henry shook his head in disgust.
"And they all said the same thing. They didn't like to make a positive match using copies of the standards we sent?" Frank Anuse asked.
"That's it. They all wanted originals."
"The guy that has them now though, called and said essentially the same thing at first, except he thought if he could have a lot more standards, he could make a decision even if they were copies."
"And...."
"And, I sent off copies of everything in her personnel file."
"You mean forms and such like? Don't they have other people's writing on them besides Trenchant's?"
"Oh, yes, but that doesn't matter. The main thing is we got confirmation. The guy will testify to that and then those damn lady-professors are going to toe the line, or else."
"You've already sent Trenchant the copies and notice of the next hearing?"
"Yup. Did it this morning. Same mail as I sent it to the rest of the committee."
"Seems as though it would have been simpler just to have her write something in front of witnesses and use those originals instead of farting around all this time with copies," Anuse suggested. "This process has taken nearly a year already."
"There's reasons. Not something you and I have to know about, but there's reasons. Anyway, here's your copy. Enjoy."
A registered package arrived for Diana. It contained copies of the 'suspect' SmurFFs and copies of the standards that she had seen before at the hearing. Also enclosed were many other documents, apparently copied from microfiche files. These copies were atrocious, all spotty with black dots and lines. Most of the letters were blurred and some parts were unreadable.
The package also contained a report from another document examiner. This one agreed that Diana had written six of the eight documents sent to them for analysis, but was not sure of two of them. Just like the previous examiners—except it wasn't the same two they indicated.
Nevertheless, the cover letter, signed by Henry, decreed that this was supportive testimony and the hearing would reconvene in five days to present this evidence formally to Diana. At that time she would be given an opportunity to cross examine the so-called expert testimony of the document examiner.
This time Henry was taking no chances. This time, the document examiner was male.
Diana and her supporters were not terribly surprised by contents of the package. It did, however, confirm that as far as the Belmont administration was concerned, she would be convicted even if they had to move heaven and earth to prove it.
The initial hearing of three days, the official protocol, the declarations of good faith made by the panel members—all a sham. She'd waited long enough. It was time to seek help outside of Belmont U.
Part of her decision to take this path was made in response to the outpouring of support from the staff, faculty and students of Belmont. These people, many of whom felt repressed themselves, knew that there was no way that justice or fairness could be brought about within the university structure. Anyone who had experience with university politics completely subscribed to the dubious accolade that university politics were the meanest of all types known to exist.
Many were angry that the whole rotten business evolved around a mere seven out of several hundred forms—all of which in the normal course of events would have been ignored.
There was frustration as well. They felt helpless and many were sickened at their lack of ability to effect any change. By sending money to Diana, "to help with legal expenses," they could mitigate their helplessness and their fear.
Efforts were initiated to bring the affair before the Faculty Senate but they were quashed as soon as they started by the new Senate president, former ombudsman, Jonathan Bambridge.
Trustees were approached by supporters as well as university alumni groups. There was sympathy, but no one wanted to risk their position against the very real power wielded by the administration.
Several women faculty went to the Pope and pleaded for him to intercede. These were brave women. They took to the meeting with the university president examples of many cases of proven misconduct that had occurred on campus. In every case, no man had ever been terminated. They reminded him that this was the first time at Belmont that a termination for cause charge had been made, and that it was against a woman.
The group of faculty women begged him to reconsider. To press such minuscule charges in the first place had been a mistake. The information had spread across campus, the town and the state, making almost every person who heard of it laugh at first, then as they realized that it was not a joke become indignant.
"The publicity already has been harmful and it can only get worse if this hearing is continued," one of the professors urgently stated to The Pope. "Why do you continue with this?"
They were told that the decision to prosecute was final and that there was nothing they could do. Then they were shown the door.
The same sort of treatment was given to staff and students except that they usually got shorter shrift. Islands of concerned people protested but never joined in concert. It was not a safe undertaking at Belmont University. Not if you wanted to keep your position. As Edmund Burke observed, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
The final straw that tipped the balance and sent Diana to an attorney to fight the inevitable termination was an editorial that appeared in THE PROD, the Belmont student newspaper. In a strongly worded article it condemned the undemocratic judicial process of the Belmont administration, which flouted the laws of the state and made up its own to fit each occasion. The editorial compared Belmont's disciplinary process to feudal times.
It was titled:
PUNISHING THE VICTIM
....Dr. Diana Trenchant was accused of wrong doing. Therefore, she was tried by a jury of her accusers in accordance with university policy. Although two witness, who in any court would be called 'expert' witnesses, testified against her, she was not allowed an adequate defense—that is, the service of an attorney who would be competent to cross examine so-called expert testimony. She was also not allowed access to documents needed in her own defense.
She will most certainly be summarily terminated—deprived of her livelihood without due process—another victim of Belmont Kangaroo Kort Justice.
"That does it," she told Andrea and James whose support had never wavered throughout the ordeal. "I refuse to be one of Burke's 'unpitied sacrifice'. More specifically, I refuse to be their victim. Perhaps the courts can do something. Let's give it a shot."
The women on the panel took a lot of heat for the reconvening of the hearing. Ricocheting across campus were the whisperings and lamentations of Esther as she endeavored to absolve herself from blame.
Jane's battle with her conscience reached only the ears of her closest friends, but her glacial features and bent posture bespoke her frustration and her impotency.
The saddest of all was Annette who had quietly borne the conflicting waves of testimony that flowed over her at the hearing. She had dared to speak up a couple of times, but now she knew that it had been a mistake. Whatever Henry asked her to sign, she would sign. Without question, without hesitation, but not with good conscience. His visit to her and his carefully chosen words concerning his knowledge of her life-style had left no doubt remaining that the threat of exposure was real.
Diana found out early on that it would be unwise to place too much confidence in the judicial system. She discovered that a court cares nothing about right or wrong, good or bad. It cares only about what the law is, can you prove it, and who proves it in the most entertaining manner.
The Attorney General had told Diana that an additional hazard was that this was a civil rights case—sex discrimination. The current federal administration had knocked the hell out of most of the laws pertaining to sex or age discrimination and greatly weakened any remaining. The EEOC was acting like a toothless pussy cat under the direction of a staunch Reagan\Bush conservative whose payoff would be a seat on the Supreme Court.
However, for all its drawbacks, it was the only game in town. A choice, instead of giving up. Besides, Diana was overwhelmed with the magnitude of support in the form of cold cash from the university community and alumni. She had to at least have the faith in herself that others had shown—but the cost! Enough to make her frugal Yankee blood congeal in horror.
Well, no help for it, she thought. She carefully figured out just how far she could go with what she had and what had been given her. That far she would go and no further. She'd give the court a chance, but she wouldn't bet the whole farm on it and certainly not the rest of her life. Decidedly not in a city where the old boy network was so substantial and entrenched that it kept its meeting place a male bastion and ruled the entire state from it. Not to mention that The Pope was a prepaid member—a perk traditionally given Belmont's president.
Ever since the original charges had been made, the Public Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office had been investigating the case brought to it by Diana. It functioned to protect the legal rights of Diana and provide a copy of its report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
It had been denied access to the previous three day hearing by the Belmont administration, but was promised the hearing transcript. After a great deal of prompting, the transcript, all 700 pages of it, had been sent to the Attorney General's Office as agreed.
It was copied and shared with the attorney representing Diana, Al Garrett. He was appalled at the way the university administration had handled the hearing and felt that all that was needed was to hit the university administration with legal paperosa plentimus and they would soon see reason.
He was unaware that the age of reason had not yet penetrated Belmont University. Their axiom was, 'Reason? There is no reason, it's company policy.'
The ensuing legal detritus delayed the reconvening of the second round of the university hearing, but didn't prevent it. In the short time given, Diana obtained affidavits from a prominent document examiner and a promise of testimony from the university psychologist.
A court reporter was once again recording the proceedings, but it wasn't Janet. The surroundings had changed also. Now, they were all sitting around a table in a very large auditorium in the English Department.
Diana had an attorney present, but university policy prevented him from doing anything except whisper instructions to her. Of course, they had talked beforehand and had planned how the defense part and cross examination would go. Even so, the attorney was still in the court mode—he had little or no concept of a university hearing and much of what went on left him stunned with disbelief and unable to provide much direction. When he tried, whispering furtively into Diana's ear to do this or say that, it made Diana little more than a puppet dangling on one string, and just as effective. One thing for certain, thought Diana as the hearing progressed, someone should tell lawyers about breath mints!
As soon as she could gain recognition from the chair, Diana requested that the hearing be open. "The purpose of a closed hearing in personnel matters is to protect the employee. I waive that protection." To herself, she thought, I know from experience that I have much more protection in public opinion than I have as a member of the faculty of Belmont University.
"Interested citizens and the press are waiting outside. They were prevented from coming in. I respectfully request that they be allowed to enter." Prevented was right, she thought, a plethora of Kampus Kops was guarding the door of the hearing room. Henry was indeed worried that the goings-on in the hearing room might be observed by an impartial observer and had taken steps to prevent it.
"No." He answered, "It is the policy of the university that hearings be closed. We will now proceed to the testimony of the second document examiner."
Henry was pleased to note that while Amos Avery, the handwriting analyst, was being sworn, the panel members played with the files on the table in front of them. He had met with each of the women individually and had whipped them into line. His eyes sparkled as he recalled their helplessness and his feelings of power.
Henry next proceeded to enter into evidence various letters and the handwriting documents. Diana, under instructions from her attorney, objected. Objections which would have been given credence in a court of law were just ignored by Henry. The only thing all the legal patter accomplished was to increase the tension and the red in his face.
Well, I'll just have to bear it, he thought grimly. That sharp lawyer, Simon Murrain, hired by The Pope to advise them on both hearings had been adamant. "Always let her speak. You can interrupt her witnesses, you can even ignore what she says or refuse what she may request. But always let her have her say. We can't have her complaining that she didn't get a fair hearing." Henry remembered how he had laughed at the simplicity of that strategy.
Concerning what she was saying now, Henry wasn't about to pay any attention. The objections Trenchant was making were important, having to do with the evidence. The writing used as standards were still not authenticated. The copies of microfiche files were almost unreadable due to their being covered with dots and black lines.
In contention were the extra standards that this analyst had requested since he could not be sure of the authorship of the 'suspect' SmurFFs using the same standards provided to the first analyst.
"You are not following any rules of evidence here," Trenchant was continuing. "You are just submitting things on a whim. You have given this examiner copies—very bad copies—of material supposedly from my personnel file covering a period of over twenty years. Even if authentic, these documents contain the handwriting or printing of at least seven other people, possibly more, and I see nothing that delineates which of all these different writings is supposed to be the standard," she argued.
"Some of the writing on these was written entirely by my daughter or son," Diana held up the documents for inspection. "These tuition exemption forms were filled out and signed with my name by either my son or my daughter, for example. The rest of the writing is by a personnel officer.
"I am surprised that you didn't send samples of writing from the entire university while you were at it," she finished sarcastically, disgust clearly portrayed in her voice and on her face.
"This hearing is being held solely to hear the report of this document examiner. You will be given a chance to comment on his report," Henry continued, blithely ignoring Diana's protest.
"Who made these rulings?" queried Diana, prompted by Al.
"Pardon me?" Henry asked.
"Who made the rulings concerning the admissibility of these standards?"
"I am reading the ground rules for this hearing which are contained in my letter to you. I am entering it into the proceedings."
"So. Who made the ruling? Not the committee!"
"The committee is aware of these things."
"The committee is just going along with whatever you propose. Why can't you admit that you are making the rules of evidence? Why do we need the rest of the panel?"
"The committee made the decision and can speak up if they do not agree." All of the women on the panel busily shuffled papers and Anuse beamed like a misplaced beacon. The silence of the panel told it all. Three cowered, two glowed. Henry was confident.
Well, thought Diana, we knew it would be a struggle. Turning to the material she and Al had prepared, she read into the record, once again, that she wanted an open hearing. That SHE had nothing to hide.
Continuing on, she brought out other legal points that Al felt needed to be in the record. "We have over and over again requested documents from the university and been denied them. You have provided me with nothing with which I can dispute your case. I am referring to some six hundred student SmurFFs that were referred to by your witnesses in the last hearing, over thirty times, yet never once were they given into evidence."
"What are you going on about?" Anuse feigned boredom.
"I am talking about the student SmurFFs that I requested at the last hearing. The charge was made that the 'suspect' SmurFFs were totally different from normal student SmurFFs and I need those for you to see that in reality, they are quite similar."
"I'm willing to believe the testimony that they exist and what they are represented to be. I don't need to see them in person." Nonchalantly, Anuse destroyed any illusion of committee impartiality with this remark. The committee's report to The Pope would remove any doubt that might linger.
Henry called a recess. It always seemed to work to break up the flow.
When the hearing commenced again, the document examiner began his testimony. "I have examined the documents in question and found that six were written by Diana Trenchant and two probably were."
Allen Avery was a tall, heavy-set man, florid of face and nearly as ugly as Jimbo. He looked like a twenty-year cop and lowered his monster brows fiercely at Diana whenever he referred to her. His presentation was not as ornate as that of Alice Stebbins. Instead of using blown up photographs of individual letters, he passed out copies of a single sheet on which there were two columns of letters.
One column was labeled standard, the other unknown. He testified that he had found enough similarities in these particular letters to identify the writer.
Frank Anuse asked if another examiner would find the same similarities in the same letters.
The answer was, "Given equal training, they should pick out the same things that I did." He went on to explain that examples were given in books and the document examiners studied the books.
On being asked if the material could have been written by an expert forger, he answered much differently than the first document examiner. "Who would know? I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but I don't feel that it was." If the women on the panel had been alert, they would have challenged a scientist that felt a conclusion—feelings were more in the realm of the arts. Science was supposed to deal with facts.
He explained that he had asked for more standards because the ones sent were not complete. Yet the first analyst had said she was one-hundred-percent certain on the basis of what was sent.
"I wanted more recent samples to see what variations there were. We don't write every letter the same every time. We look for the range."
Asked if handwriting analysis was as exact as fingerprints, he said, "It is as individual and as unique as fingerprints." Yet when asked if a number of different analysts looked at the same documents, would they all agree, he answered, "If they had equal training and experience."
After a short recess, Diana was allowed to examine the witness. Her first question was directed toward the authenticity of the standards submitted. "Do you know of your own knowledge that the exemplars sent to you were all written by me?"
"No."
She turned to Henry and said, "then, I request that this report be removed from evidence since it states facts that this examiner declares are false."
While Henry looked at her incredulously, she read from the examiner's report, illustrating all the places where the standards were referred to as being her handwriting or printing.
Henry was outraged. "Of course, when he writes that in his report, he means that he is using my communication with him. I wrote that these were samples of your handwriting, that I had every reason to believe that they were."
Diana persisted. "I see nothing in the report to the effect that he was 'told' anything as you state. He very definitely writes that they ARE standards of my handwriting. Now he says under oath that he does not know. These errors nullify the report."
"I feel that the report tells us what we asked from the document examiners." With that, Henry thought, the book is closed. No one could argue with that. You get what you pay for. Case closed.
Doggedly, Diana continued. "Did you do a top of the letter pattern?"
"I beg your pardon. Would you explain what you mean by top of the letter pattern?"
With subsequent questions, Diana established that he did not know what bottom of the letter pattern, space pattern or slant pattern were. These techniques, common to document examiners, were completely unknown to this so-called expert. Trenchant explained to him what these common handwriting tests were all about.
It was then established that he only did a letter comparison. He claimed that the other tests or techniques, "were done by graphologists." His attitude made crystal clear that he considered graphologists to be a very dirty word. "I," he continued, with a conceited accent on the word, "am a document examiner." When Diana named her source of information and held up the book of a prominent document examiner, his reply was, "That person must come from a different viewpoint that I do."
"It appears that what you refer to as graphologists, in your profession, are much more thorough in their analysis of handwriting and printing than you are. The author of this book makes a point of insisting on original, authenticated standards and doing several different types of measurements. The idea being that when they decide a document's author, it is based on several different tests.
"You did only a letter by letter comparison then. Every letter?"
"A majority of them."
It turned out not to be the case. Diana brought up letter after letter that the analyst had not found a match to. "S" was one of them. Looking hastily through the so-called standards, Avery finally found one, but it was a printed capital "S" which he was saying was a match for a small case scripted "s" found at the end of a word. For all that time and trouble, he discovered it in a signature purported to have been written by Diana twenty years ago! This document also contained the writing of more than one person, and the signature itself was written by Diana's daughter.
Other discrepancies were brought out. T's that were not crossed, small i's with a backward slant, the written letter R which looked like a U. These and other examples of letters found in the 'suspicious' SmurFFs, were not found to be represented in twenty years worth of material allegedly copied from the files.
"It doesn't matter," Avery asserted. "I mean it is entirely possible that the writer could have made an R like that even though I can't show you an example."
"You were given samples of what you were told was my handwriting that covered twenty to thirty years?"
"Yes."
"Is it not true that a person's handwriting may change due to injury or disease such as osteoporosis, rheumatism or arthritis?"
"I would agree that a person's handwriting can change over the years."
"Do you know of any statistical studies pertaining to the accuracy of handwriting analysis?"
"Accuracy?"
"Yes. Is it 50%, 75% or 100% accurate? Do you know of any studies made?"
"It is 100% accurate. It is allowed in the courts."
"Wait a minute. Are you saying the courts have made a study?"
"I don't know if such a study has been made. But the courts allow handwriting identification testimony to be given."
"That is damn different than statistical tests of accuracy. Tell me this. Courts allow juries to give verdicts of guilty or not guilty, is that correct?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't mean that they are always correct in their assessment, that just means that the court accepts it, right?"
"Yes."
"You are aware that the courts accept and allow testimony from any number of so-called experts in many different fields such as doctors, psychologists, engineers and natural scientist, just to name a few?
"Yes."
"This does not necessarily mean that all of these are one hundred percent correct in their testimony. It just means that the court accepts and allows it. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Sources of error can exist in handwriting analysis, can they not? There are a lot of judgment calls just like there is in most professions, isn't that correct?"
"Yes."
"So we really have no evidence that handwriting analysis is infallible. In fact, there are document examiners that are honest enough not to claim that."
"Well, they must be graphologists. We are on a different basis and it cannot be carried over to what we are doing."
Trenchant then named a well known document examiner and asked if Avery knew of him.
"Of course."
"Is he a graphologist?"
"No."
"We talked to him about this situation and asked him questions. Unfortunately, it was much too expensive to bring him here to testify, however, he did agree to make an affidavit. I will read from it now. Quote. 'It is my opinion that the identification of handwriting is not as positive as fingerprint identification. While a document examiner may feel that his or her opinion is 100 percent positive, the facts are that the opinion is based on qualifications, training, experience and judgment, any of which may be limiting or otherwise subject to question. In addition, the known standards used in the comparison for the Belmont case may be tainted or under dispute.'"
"I don't agree." The document examiner said, visibly upset.
Henry called a recess.
When the session opened again, Diana asked, "If you had your druthers, would you agree with other document examiners that original standards are preferable to copies?"
"Yes."
"You have said that you could not reach a conclusion from the first lot of so-called standards sent to you. If you had not been sent all that additional material going back 20 to 30 years, what would have been your conclusion?"
"I would have no conclusion."
"I am interested in your report of this note. The other unknown material you were sent was written on evaluation forms. I am speaking now of the note." Trenchant held up her copy.
Avery nodded and located his copy among the papers before him on the table.
"Now, you report that you cannot be sure of the authorship of this note which has quite a few words but you can be sure of the authorship of this evaluation form which has only two words."
Avery found the other document referred to and looked at them and then at his notes. "Yes," he agreed. "I could not be sure of the note because it contains block printing."
"So do these other SmurFFs that you say you have identified. There is some block printing on the note that we are talking about, but most of it is small case printing."
"Well, there were not enough individualistic examples in the note to be sure."
Henry wished that they had never let that note be sent to the document examiners. It had been nothing but trouble and was not related to the SmurFF forgery that Diana was charged with. That damn note which had come out of nowhere—reportedly given Lyle by his good friend but never verified, was not identified as being written by Diana by either of the two document examiner firms. The two examiners also differed on the identification of one of the 'suspect' medical school SmurFFs. One was sure of Exhibit 2 but not of 3. The other was sure of 3 but not of 2. Henry recalled that now both document examiner witnesses agreed that the handwriting did change over the years. Jesus, if this woman keeps it up, she'll destroy all our evidence. Quickly, Henry stepped in and Amos Avery, the second document examiner that the Belmont administration had hired, was excused.
After Avery left the hearing room, Diana put the expert document examiner's affidavit, that she had read from, into evidence. The expert had sworn in this affidavit that all of the student evaluations for the medical school courses for those years should be analyzed. It was possible that another person or persons had handwriting or printing that was similar to Diana's. She read this portion to the committee and added that she hoped they would read the complete affidavit which contained several pages of the document examiner's credentials.
All along, the women kept their eyes either on these papers or on the witness. They steadfastly refused to look at Diana or at the chair. They asked few questions of the witness, tonelessly, and did not ask any follow up or clarifying questions.
Annette gives new dimension to the act of keeping a low profile, thought Henry. Her demeanor resembles that of a puppy that has just been whipped for pissing on the new carpet. Jane, on the other hand, adopts a superior mien. Her greatly elevated nose brings her whole being into an altitude seemingly far above the detestable situation she finds herself in.
As for Esther, well, she's a wreck. Never terribly lucid in her thought processes, she babbles incoherently and then apologizes when asked to repeat them. Her piggy eyes dart from witness to her papers in a flurry of indecisiveness.
Frank Anuse is up to form though and really enjoying it. Henry watched Frank proudly as he flung Diana a shit eatin' grin at every opportunity and at times actually taunted her in a way reminiscent of a town bully.
At this point in the proceedings, Anuse laughed aloud in a derisive, taunting fashion, causing everyone on the panel to look at him in shocked silence. The chair put up a warning hand.
Esther, all the way out in left field and looking bewildered asked, "I don't remember. Did we receive something from the students?"
Diana stood up and walked over to where Anuse sat. Jowl to jowl with him, she said succinctly, "It isn't funny, Mr. Frank Anuse. It is not funny, it is serious." To Esther, she said, "You probably don't see everything that comes in or goes out of this committee.
"Again, I want to state that I have been denied access to all these student evaluations that are needed for my defense. In addition, this committee has steadfastly refused to confirm the testimony of their witnesses concerning these documents by demanding that they be produced." Diana returned to her chair.
Her attorney, Al Garret, leaned over and whispered into her ear. He congratulated her on heeding his advice to be assertive and demanding.
Diana continued, "I would like to call Dr. Stacy Denton who has information on the writing of the suspect documents."
"Is this....", Henry floundered. "Is this new information referring to the document examiner we just heard from? This hearing is restricted, as I told you, to his testimony and—"
"This witness has very pertinent information for the committee regarding my innocence of your charges."
"We do need to restrict this hearing"
"Dr. Denton has been waiting nearly three hours to give her testimony."
The chair shrugged and muttered under his breath. What would Simon Murrain advise. I need time to think about it. Aloud he said, "The committee will recess to discuss this."
Everyone was told to leave the hearing room except the committee. When they were alone, Henry made it clear. "We must limit this hearing only to the evidence we presented."
Jane, with grave misgivings concerning her future at Belmont, rose to the occasion. "I think we need to hear this. We should at least appear to be giving her a fair hearing."
"She's already had that," snapped back Henry. "This hearing is expressly for confirming the findings of the first document examiners. Nothing else."
Anuse, who had watched the others leave the hearing room unexpectedly sided with Jane and urged caution. "Perhaps we should hear her, Henry. Those damn reporters are still out there. If we don't let her testify, it will be the lead story in tomorrow's paper."
"Still there, are they? Bothersome creatures! Well, that puts a different face on it." He sat for a moment in thought. He'd had his orders. They were to wind this up fast. "All right. We'll hear that witness, however, I am declaring this hearing closed as of right now. Her testimony will appear to be heard by the panel and will be in the minutes to keep the Attorney General and the press off our backs.
"But make no mistake, any of you." He looked around at all the committee members, his face stern and his voice threatening, "We meet tomorrow at nine o'clock right here to sign this report that you have already seen. I'll redraft it to indicate that we have had this additional testimony, but essentially, it will read the same. Is that clear?"