All of her witnesses were waiting in a high state of excitement when Diana reached Howard Hall the next morning.
"Roz came in early," she was told. "She wanted to be sure we got this room again today."
Roz brushed aside the praise, "Hey teach, I've got some great news. The rest of the class is kicking in to make up for what we lose in wages by attending the hearing."
Diana was delighted. The fact that many of her witnesses were losing time at work to help her had caused a nagging pain of remorse. Already, most of them had lost a day's pay just sitting around waiting to testify yesterday. While her witnesses occupied themselves in various ways—studying, reading or conversing quietly, Diana sat down on the couch, closed her eyes and sought to compose herself. Even though the panel had instructed her to be there at nine with all her witnesses, one never knew when the hearing would reconvene.
Good news indeed. What great people these were, she thought. When the whole mess happened, this class of some two hundred nutrition students had rounded up hundreds of signatures for petitions sent to Lyle, Sam and the Pope. Many of the students had gone to them in person to plead for justice.
Although most of the students were in the nursing school, some came from the colleges of agriculture, arts and science and special education. Collectively, they had filled out and filed more nominations for me to be named Teacher Of The Year than had ever been received before for one teacher. They were devastated when the committee receiving these nominations threw them in the wastebasket, following the instructions of Henry Tarbuck.
Then there were some that went as a group to beg help from the 'Minority VP'—Dan Field. Dan talks a good game against discrimination and even pretends to speak for the black community. He's a brilliant, fascinating lecturer, a perennial favorite with the students. They considered him to be the most impartial, open-minded administrator they had ever known. His feet of clay surprisingly revealed when he washed his hands of the students pleas and sided with the administration, telling the students who petitioned him for help that I am a criminal. At least the blacks on campus weren't surprised by this. They had long ago discovered he was not only a smart cookie, he was an oreo.
But, Diana mused on gratefully, Dan was the exception. Many pleaded on my behalf. Someone once said that all it takes to stop evil is for one good man to speak up and many good men, and women, did just that. They spoke up for justice and fair play. They argued with administration officials, citing example after example of male faculty misconduct over the years that had gone nearly unnoticed and never punished.
They asserted that a witch hunt would hurt the Belmont image and reflect badly on all who worked there. They all knew what a farce the SmurFFs had always been and all this fuss over seven? Sure, evaluations were used at times by administrators as justification for not reappointing a faculty member, but even then, there had to be a preponderance of negative evaluations.
It was of no avail. The administration was adamant. So much for wise sayings but the fact that some people did try was heartwarming, Diana thought.
Roz broke her revere, gently. "It's time, Diana."
Was it her imagination or was the panel friendlier this morning, Diana mused as she entered the room and took her seat. I do believe besides saying good morning, most of them smiled at me. Maybe things are looking up.
A chastised Randy returned to the witness chair. He looks ridden hard and put away wet, thought Diana with amusement.
Responding to a question from Annette, he avowed that, "The year that Trenchant didn't teach, we rewrote the lab manual. We didn't use any material from the manual written by Trenchant."
When all on the panel had indicated that they had no more questions to ask him, Henry asked Diana if she wished to question the witness. To himself, he added, God help us if the little twerp doesn't do what he's been told. Mark had assured him that he and Lyle had a good long session with Randy and felt that he had now seen the light and would behave properly.
"Yes, please. I'm confused, Randy. You have said that you saw one evaluation that appeared to be more directed toward one year than both years. You answered that this was one of the reasons why you thought it was suspicious.
"Now these evaluations have no dates on them. Is it not possible that both are from the same year?"
"No."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I don't remember which one was from which year, but these are from two separate years."
"Did you mark them."
"No. I picked one out of each year's evaluations."
"But you don't know the specific year each came from?"
"No."
With further questions, Diana established that from the time the evaluations had been given to Randy, they had not been safeguarded in any fashion. Sometimes they were in a file cabinet, sometimes on a bench or table in his lab.
At least twice, they had left his possession when the secretaries had called for them to use in tabulating the synopsis for the dean.
It appeared that there was some confusion as to when he took the 'suspicious' documents to Lyle. "I don't know the exact date. Certainly after the second year I was in the course—January or February."
"Lyle said it was a year later than that. He said it was last year," pressed Diana.
Interrupting imperiously, Anuse jumped in to lead him with careful questions in a direction away from that subject.
When he finished, Diana summed up his testimony. "The 'suspect' evaluations were not dated. You testified that you didn't know which one came from which year. You have no idea if all or any of the remaining evaluations are authentic, is this all correct?"
Randy nodded glumly.
When Diana again referred to Lyle's testimony that Randy had brought the critiques to him last year, Anuse again interrupted. This time Trenchant held her ground and forcefully turned toward him saying, "Excuse me. I believe this is my time to examine this witness!"
"Now, Randy, you have stated that none of the material in my laboratory manual was used by you to create the manual you used last year when I was not in the course. Do you want to change that answer?"
"No."
The accused held up two large manila envelopes, thick with their contents, saying, "I have here a copy of my manual and the one you prepared. Clearly marked are the parts in your manual that have been lifted verbatim from mine.
"In addition, I have given the references of whole paragraphs that you have copied from published radiology text books and used without citation in your manual.
"I am prepared to offer this to the panel as evidence that you are not telling the truth."
"This has nothing to do with the Termination For Cause action that this hearing is all about," interrupted Henry. "You must keep to the subject." How did I ever get into this fix, he thought. Aloud, he continued, "Since this material does not bear directly on the matter at hand, it cannot be allowed into evidence. Please continue."
"I have no further questions."
Whew, she gave up. Henry wiped his brow. That was close, I figured she'd keep picking at him until he blew up and spattered all over the room. Hurriedly he said, "You're excused, Randy. Please tell Ian to come in before you leave."
Randy shared in the relief felt by the chair of the panel. He ran lightly up the stairs to the witness room. "You're on next, Ian." He was surprised when Ian fairly catapulted out of the room, grabbing his arm as he passed and nearly hurled them both down the stairs. "What in hell is the damned hurry?"
Safely away from the second floor, Ian steered Randy into an alcove from where he could see the stairs. "That Mark! Honestly, Randy, he's been driving me crazy. Talks a blue streak all the time. Ask him the date and he'll discourse for hours on end before he gets to the point. Holding any kind of a conversation with him is as impossible as stopping a hurricane by shouting at it.
"I kept trying to get away. Once, I said I had to take a piss and the son of a bitch came along with me, whizzing away in the next urinal, without missing a word. I tell you, the man should be muzzled."
"Well, it looks as if he isn't going to follow you into the hearing room, Ian. Calm down. They're waiting for you in there."
"Yeah, in a minute. Tell me first, Randy, how was it? Anything I should watch out for?"
"Nada." Randy had regained his usual swagger. "Not a thing, old bean. Between us, we'll give the bitch the old one two...."
"We're waiting for you, Ian." Henry said from the doorway of the hearing room.
"Oh, right. I'm coming right along. Just had to get things straight about who takes the review session today since I could be tied up here," blubbered Ian, apologetically. As he reached the door, he turned and looked back up the stairs apprehensively. Seeing no one, he breathed a sigh of relief and entered the hearing room.
Ian Heathson was of average height. His most striking features were his mop of blond hair and pale blue eyes which flitted about, examining the room, looking everywhere except at Diana.
When asked to substantiate the testimony of Lyle that he and Randy had found 'suspicious' SmurFFs, Ian told a slightly different story.
He hadn't found any himself. Randy had found them. "He showed them to me and I was flabbergasted. I had no reason to suspect that something like that would happen."
Having said that, he reversed course and said, "I always thought there was some kind of manipulative action going on with the students, because we used to get critiques that were totally inconsistent with what we were doing in the course. So we always felt there was something going on."
When Henry asked what he did next, he stated that Randy had brought the 'suspect' SmurFFs to Lyle and, "indicated our concern."
Given the packet of SmurFFs that had been sent to the document examiners and asked to identify them as the ones found, he said, "I can't remember, I didn't memorize them."
When asked how he got along with Diana, he admitted that, "they got along fine until the year Randy...." Stopping abruptly.... "Well, I noticed problems all along."
Esther, who had apparently read the complete set of student evaluations for the years in question, entered as evidence by Diana, suggested that his evaluations had become more positive each year before Randy came into the course.
He professed to not knowing for sure, but thought, "The first year I taught was not good, the second year, considerably better and the third, a hair better, not much.
"The fourth year, well...."
Easy now, Ian, thought Henry, that was the year that Randy started teaching.
As if he had heard Henry's silent coaching, Ian testified as if his life depended upon it—his professional life did. He told a long heart-wrenching tale of the terrible student evaluations he received in the radiology course. He had very nearly not been reappointed a couple of times but Lyle had fought for him.
Over and over again, at every opportunity, he came back to the years of deleterious critiques passed in by the students. Obviously, this had to be because Trenchant manipulated the students.
"Some of the things commonly written on the critiques were, 'Why isn't she lecturing?' 'Course is totally disorganized' and this is wrong because I am not a disorganized individual; the course is very well organized."
"Did you ever have her lecture to see what the students' reaction would be?" asked Jane.
"We'd talked about it," he replied.
Ian continued, "Along with the many comments to have her lecture, the students wrote how she was the only one who knew anything about radiology and that Randy and I should get out of the course and let her teach it. As I looked through the SmurFFs these comments just jumped out at me. When I was a student, I never wrote such things about my professors."
There was, however, a change in the critiques the year the accused was not teaching the course. "A complete flip-flop," Ian asserted. "The students liked the course and the people who taught it."
Henry ducked his head and smiled grimly thinking that these 'flip-flop' SmurFFs would damn well not be seen by the panel, I'll see to that. Ian is really stretching the truth here since those SmurFFs he's talking about are more flop than flip. True, the students didn't lambaste Ian and Randy that year as they had in the past, however, in a way, they were just as bad. Nearly every critique carried the name of the student and the date. The few comments they contained were bland almost to the point of being insulting. Most of them contained no comments, as the student just checked off the 'average' number for each category under evaluation. Those that contained comments were all typed. Well, if the panel or Diana asked to see them he would simply say that they had no bearing on the issue.
Henry returned from his reverie just as Ian was saying "....there were even some SmurFFs submitted by the students for Diana, which I couldn't figure out why since she wasn't even teaching the course this year."
Ian carefully did not mentioned how this year, as Lyle had directed, he had begged and implored the students to write favorable reviews on their evaluation forms since his job depended on it....
It was time to do course evaluations again. A great many of the radiology students were unhappy that they had been told to avoid contact with Diana who had helped them a great deal during the past few months. They were told she was accused of doing some terrible thing but that it would be forgotten and forgiven if they as a class returned positive critiques for the course.
They also heard Ian's sad tale of imminent loss of job and how he had just bought a new home ad nauseam.
The class officers discussed the situation and offered the following advice to their classmates at a hastily called meeting just prior to exams.
"Don't write your radiology critique out of anger, even if you feel angry. We don't want to cause her any more problems.
"Write anything positive you can think of and leave it at that. Ian has tried hard and none of us want to hurt him. Also, use a typewriter and keep a copy. None of us wants to hear Randy fabricate results to his advantage.
"As most of you have heard, no medical student will be allowed to testify for her, or for that matter, even attend the hearing. Since many of you have indicated you want to do something, just remember that we've been officially told to cool it. The reality is that our future could depend on not rocking the boat too much.
"Peter is starting a collection to be given to her anonymously. At this point, it's all we can do. I'm sure she has additional expenses because of all this. I wish we could tell you this is fair and courageous. We can't. She is going down the drain, but it won't help if we go down with her."
Susan Anders stood up. "I hear what you're saying and agree for the most part. However, as one individual, I just had to do something—this is such a vicious attack on her. I have written and mailed a letter to the Pope which I signed and am solely responsible for. In other words, none of you are involved if there is any reprisal because of it. In it, I expressed my displeasure and labeled the prosecution of Diana an administrative gang bang."
The class applauded.
Now it was Diana's turn to ask questions of Ian.
"You told us that when you examined your SmurFF critiques that some just 'jumped out at you'. It would seem that had it been up to you, quite a few SmurFFs would have been sent away for analysis."
"No. All kinds of things were written that made me think that something was wrong. I couldn't understand it but I didn't go back through the old critiques and try to pick them out."
"But Randy did. Is that correct?"
"Yes. He told me he had found three SmurFFs among the radiology critiques that he thought were in your handwriting." Suddenly going from sober to smirk, Ian finished slyly, "and he was right."
Ignoring the obvious baiting attempt, Diana continued. "When you were referring to the critiques that jumped out at you, I take it you meant all the SmurFFs—not just the ones in evidence called 'suspicious' critiques?" She indicated the folders containing the material that had been sent to the document examiners.
"I mean the actual student critiques. They basically have the same kind of comments as those," replied Ian pointing to the folders.
"Then you don't agree that the reason these 'suspicious' critiques stood out was because they were so different? Isn't that the reason you took them to Lyle?"
"Randy did that. I didn't go through all of them as he did, but he showed me the ones he picked out and they were pretty much the same as all the others—basically not good."
"Now which one of these critiques, these in the packet B, are you saying were very detrimental and personally injurious and caused you undue harm?"
"I haven't read them. I'm talking about all the critiques in general."
"Then you are alleging that I wrote all the critiques?"
"No. A psychologist would find that a person would have to have mental problems to sit down and write all the critiques like that. What I'm saying is there is other evidence, probably intangible, that a seed was planted in a student's mind, and that seed was portrayed in some of the comments that they wrote on their own."
Still trying to get the question answered, Diana asked again, this time reading from the memo from the dean. "The dean wrote that I am, quote, 'accused of creating fictitious student critiques which were very detrimental and personally injurious to two junior faculty members' unquote.
"So I am asking again, which one of these have you selected to...."
Oh, oh, Ian's in trouble thought Henry interrupting quickly with, "Have you seen this memo, Ian?"
"No."
The chair handed a copy of the memo and the packet of 'suspicious' critiques to Ian saying, "He has not seen the memorandum you are referring to." To himself, he said, come on Ian, get it together. This is dangerous ground.
Ian read the memo and then looked at the critiques. "Well, there are things in here....Randy's and my teaching effectiveness down to 2 and yours up at 5. A comment that you are an excellent lecturer. This one has to do with sexism.... I don't know about that.
"Now I haven't gone through these. These are things that Randy found, things he pulled out and brought to my attention."
"When was this?" queried Diana
"Oh, I can't recall the exact date."
"According to this memo that you say you haven't seen, Lyle has written that during the early part of last fall, you came to him with two critiques—now, I assume he means three—does that...."
"That sounds reasonable, but I don't remember exactly what month it was."
"Was it before or after the problems that you had with publishers regarding copyright infractions in the radiology course.... the year I was not in it?"
Henry felt as of he had been punched in the stomach and the gasp of surprise escaping from his lips was audible to everyone in the room. Before any of the panel could react, Trenchant held up her hand in a gesture universally representing STOP. "Let him answer the question," she insisted.
My God, the bitch has pinned him and I can't think what to do to stop this. Come on, Ian, deny knowing anything about what she's asking. Think what you're saying. Henry started to sweat.
Ian seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere. "Before or after? Jeez, I don't remember."
"Was it right around that time, perhaps?"
"I really don't remember. The copyright infractions happened last fall—actually during the first week of classes. So I don't remember for sure, but I think Randy came to me after that with these SmurFFs."
Good lord, the asshole is admitting to plagiarism. Henry found his tongue finally. "The reason we are here has to do with these 'suspect' evaluations and irrelevant matter should be left out," he protested with a warning look at Ian.
Interesting, thought Diana. It's OK to bring in anything that is derogatory or even believed to be derogatory about me and my casting spells on the students, but anything about their admitted dishonesty is verboten. Beam me up, Scotty....
She turned her attention back to Ian. "Just a few more questions. You have said that Randy picked these evaluations out, and I see no date on them. Do you have any idea of the year they refer to?"
"I assume that they were the SmurFFs that he had received recently. But I'm not sure. We just keep them all in one pile."
"Now, usually after the students have handed in their SmurFFs is it not correct that you are given yours and the course critiques and you keep them unless Lyle wants the secretaries to summarize them for the dean?"
"Right."
"That is all I need to ask. Thank you."
There was a short break while Henry dismissed Ian and called the panel into a whispering huddle with him. Looking up, he addressed Janet and Diana, almost as an afterthought. "You need not leave the room, we will be finished in a few minutes."
I've got to set these people straight after what has just gone down, he thought. We're calling her next and they have to be warned not to pursue red herrings.
After the formalities of swearing in were completed, the 'suspect' evaluations were identified as being contained in packets called exhibit 3 and 4 by the chair and Diana was asked if she wrote them.
Following her denial, Henry asked her why 'they' would suggest that she had. She answered that she had no idea. Damn her, thought Henry. She won't rise to the bait.
Next, the chair turned to exhibit 5, which he identified as some of the standards used by the document examiners. Apparently, he had heard and taken note when Trenchant had made a point of the fact that the so-called standards were copies.
"One is an original, here on top—the rest are copies." Then he continued, obliquely, asking, "have you seen these before?"
"Since these exhibits were passed around and discussed yesterday," Trenchant answered, "I have seen something that appears like this.
"If you are asking if I wrote them, the answer is that I couldn't say. The one original in the packet looks like my signature but there is no date on it. I don't know when it was written and do not recall writing it.
"These others show dates of a long time ago. We're in the late eighties now and these are dated '61, '69...."
"We have some dated more current that the document examiners used. I can send over to Mark's office for them."
"Oh, you have additional evidence that I was not given before the hearing? Is that correct?"
"No. Well, I mean no one has looked at it. No one on this committee either. This was handled between Mark and the document examiners. I will call Mark right now and have him bring them over."
Henry left the hearing room and headed up the stairs to the witness waiting room where Mark was standing by for just such emergencies. You'd think we were the ones on trial, he grumbled to himself. Why does she persist in this inane manner when I've got everything so well planned out? "Mark, Trenchant's called us on the remaining standards that you sent but that we decided not to include in the material we gave her. Please go and get them and bring them to the hearing room as soon as possible."
As the men descended the stairs, Mark to leave and Henry to return to the hearing, Mark asked, "how did she find out about them, Henry?"
"She was making such a fuss about all the standards having dates so far back that she couldn't identify them and the panel apparently thinks this is a valid reason why she won't identify them. I had to say the document examiners had more recent samples of her handwriting or...." Henry broke off quickly as Helen came out of the room used by Diana's witnesses at the foot of the stairs.
"Hi, guys," greeted Helen placidly. "How's it going? Are you on a break?"
Spare me these emancipated females, thought Henry as he angrily ignored her, waived goodbye to Mark and reentered the hearing room.
Congenial old Mark, badly in need of a conversation fix after Ian had left, approached Helen with a wide smile. "No," he said to her, "Henry just had to step out for a minute so he could tell me something he needed me to get for him.
"I'm on the way over to the admin building right now. You must be one of the witness for Diana. Sure hope this isn't too traumatic for you all. It really is a terrible thing to have happen at Belmont and I'm sure that as much as you all must like Diana and want to help her that as soon as you understand the preponderance of evidence against her, you'll decide...." Strange woman, he thought, as Helen went back into the waiting room and firmly closed the door. Oh well, I might as well go over and get that stuff for Henry.
Inside the hearing room, Henry had ruled that they would go ahead for now and introduce the material when it was brought over.
Continuing her challenge, Diana said, "I repeat again, this is evidence, this is material that was sent to the document examiners that I have not seen. Is that correct? Even though you and Lyle have both assured me that I was given all the evidence?"
"Well, that only meant that you had all the material sent at that time. This is additional information that the document examiners brought with them."
"Material that I was not privy to and had no opportunity to question the document examiners on! I consider this most unfair."
Anuse smirked.
"Well," Henry replied, "you will see it presently so that's all right. The committee may now ask additional questions."
Esther wanted to know what was going on in the department. "We have heard from Lyle, Ian and Randy. What is your perception?"
Damn the woman, fumed Henry. I purposely warned her against asking that kind of question. He turned his full attention on Diana's answer.
"I will confirm first that there were problems. When I was in the course, I objected to using published material without permission from the publisher and credit to the author.
"I also refused to allow them to use the manual I had written and copyrighted, which they wanted to present to the students as their own after they had added to it.
"I was ordered to do this by Lyle and when I refused, I was threatened with a lawsuit and then told that they would take what they wanted anyway.
"When I first wrote the manual, I offered it free of charge to Ian for the course. He was delighted and most grateful that I had undertaken the project. The manual was well accepted by the students and was used in the course for two years.
"I had no objection to it being used the next year—the year I was not in the course. But, I would not allow them to revise it or steal it."
Diana Trenchant went on to explain that her manual was strictly concerned with basic radiology information; information that would prepare students for the more demanding courses in radiology therapy that they would encounter the next year.
"One year, I audited those courses so that when I wrote the manual, I could make sure that students would be well prepared for them.
"There was never any question that I supported the presentation of experimental material in addition to the basics contained in the manual. Actually what they proposed adding to the course was not new. We have been doing this for several years, before Randy came to NERD, using legitimate reference material obtained from publishers."
"Was there any connection between all this and the alleged fictitious SmurFFs?" pursued Esther.
"It does seem rather strange to me that they suddenly appeared at the time Ian and Randy were facing copyright infringement charges—according to Ian's testimony."
Diana continued by telling the committee that there had been no problems until Randy had come into the course. When she worked with Ian, things went fine. They conferred and cooperated with each other. Ian's evaluations gradually got better.
"After Randy came in, I was left out of the loop. He, Ian and Lyle made decisions and I was not informed. For example, two years ago, Randy was made co-director of the course with Ian. I was not told about it."
The door to the hearing room opened and Mark's head floated through the opening. Ah good, thought Henry, just the kind of distraction I need to stop this line of questioning. "We will now introduce this material," he said as he got up to take the large brown envelope Mark produced in the doorway. "The dates on these documents, used as standards by the document examiners, are more recent." Smugly, he handed copies of these documents to each of the panel members and then to Diana, keeping one set for himself.
"These documents appear to be copies from personnel files," observed Diana, looking at the chair for confirmation.
"Yes," Henry confirmed. "They were taken from your personnel file and sent by the university attorney to use as standards."
"Then I would like to see the release I signed so that this material could be removed from my file," demanded Trenchant.
"Release? No release was necessary," Henry looked puzzled and frowned with annoyance.
"Mr. Chairman, you have made note several times that this termination hearing is justified by a certain paragraph in the faculty handbook," Diana replied firmly. "In that same handbook, there is a paragraph stating that no material shall be removed from a faculty person's file without the permission of that person. If you have a handbook here, I will find the exact wording and read it to you."
"Oh, I know what you are referring to and that does not apply in this case," Henry ruled quickly and then turned to the panel and said, "We must get on with it. Are these your handwriting?"
"I don't know. These are copies. Copies are suspicious."
Anuse interjected demanding to know why.
Diana explained to him that she had done a great deal of research, since she had first been charged, into document examination. Accomplished document examiners insist on original, authentic standards. Except for a couple, all of these so-called standards are copies. In addition, as you will recall from her answer to the questions I asked her, the examiner you engaged admitted that she did not know of her own knowledge that I had written the standards she used.
"A competent examiner would have the person in question write the standards in his or her presence. That way the analyst is unbiased, and can swear that the standards are authentic.
"I also learned that one should never identify copies as one's writing because copies may be altered and recopied so the alterations do not show."
"Now these came from the administration and you certainly can't think that any alteration went on," scoffed Anuse.
"I certainly can think it's possible. Just as I know it's possible to forge handwriting so even the experts cannot tell."
"No, that is incorrect. The analysts testified that she could tell forgeries."
"She also testified that I had written these 'suspect' evaluations but admitted that she had not authenticated the standards used nor insisted on original standards.
"As far as believing that tampering could be done, I remind you that one of these 'suspect' documents was tampered with and Lyle admitted doing it."
"What!" blurted Henry, "what...."
"This one here." The accused held up the evaluation that had a three word printed comment on the course. Stapled to it was a note reading, 'Lyle, have a happy Christmas, Diana'.
"This was given the document examiners as 'suspect' evaluation #6, yet clearly Lyle knew that he had prejudiced it by putting six additional words on it that he knew I had written. This is original writing on Christmas paper and not part of this evaluation, yet from the report the examiners made, it was treated as part of a 'suspect' document."
Henry quickly told Janet that she could stop taking notes while the committee huddled off the record. Feverishly, he opened the analyst report and scanned the relevant paragraph. After a few moments, Henry and Frank Anuse exchanged glances. Anuse nodded and Henry told Janet they were back on record. Immediately, Anuse sarcastically claimed that he didn't under stand what all the fuss was about. He could see no tampering.
Trenchant explained again. "It is obvious. A known standard is affixed to an unknown document. It is made a part of that unknown document."
Anuse seemed to deliberately misunderstand. He continued this over and over, taking different tacks but essentially he was bent on wearing Diana down.
Careful, thought Henry. A court would say Anuse was badgering the witness. Henry knew this was not proper questioning, it was arguing, but he let it continue.
"Oh," Anuse would say in an annoying, baiting way, "it was not altered since Lyle had stapled it there so it wouldn't get lost." and "I don't understand where you have a problem with this."
After several minutes of this, he dismissed the whole complaint. Scathingly, he said that it didn't matter since the whole document had been written by Trenchant anyway. The document analyst had said so.
"Yes they had," Diana agreed. "Despite the fact that there were three PRINTED words on the SmurFF. The WRITING they identified was only on the slip of paper that Lyle had attached."
The panel was silent. Trenchant addressed them. "When I was first charged with writing these critiques, I spoke to a few professional document examiners. Right off, I discovered that I could not afford to hire one to do an unbiased analysis. However, they usually were willing to answer general questions on the phone for a small consulting fee.
"In talking with them and reading the material they suggested to me, I came away with some interesting information. None that I talked to felt they were infallible or claimed that handwriting was as unique as fingerprints, but they enjoyed the benefits of that illusion.
"Both tape recordings and polygraph (lie detector) evidence is not allowed in courts. The so-called expert testimony of doctors, psychiatrists, as well as various technical expertise such as fingerprint and document analysis is. Deus ex machina is evidently not looked highly upon by judges, possibly because they allow no other gods before them in their courtrooms.
"Court certification of a document examiner means that the court has accepted their training and experience. This is seldom checked and is fairly loosely defined by the profession itself. It does not indicate a perfect batting average for the examiner.
"Most analysts that I contacted said that if they were hired in this case, they would want to examine all of the critiques—not just the handful picked out by NERD. There is always the chance of there being another individual with similar handwriting in that many samples.
"They admitted there were people capable of forging the handwriting of another person. They directed me to check out the literature on the Hitler Diaries and the more recent White Salamander Papers. What these two cases had in common was that the best, most expert document examiners in the world were fooled. Because these were sensational cases, they were highly publicized. Most forgeries get little or no attention from the media but the fact remains that a good forger can fool highly qualified document examiners.
"Oh, yes. There is one more thing I want to question here since most of the documents you have listed as so-called standards are copies. These copies are mostly memos addressed to people in the department. If they are authentic, why aren't they originals? If I had written and sent those, it would have been the originals—if I'd made a copy it would have been kept for my files."
My God, Henry screamed to himself, why do I let her go on with this? Well, of course, it's because those women are listening and look interested so I don't dare cut her own testimony off too often. They were not happy with the way Frank was badgering her and I didn't want to alienate them any further. Aloud, he said, "Does the panel have any more questions?" Getting no response, the chair called a short recess.
When Diana entered the waiting room, her witnesses gathered around, full of support and questions. "All in all, it went pretty well," she told them. "The real victory was getting out of there without throttling Frank Anuse. He asks question after question always discounting your answer. He doesn't come right out and say you're lying but it is implied in his manner.
"The rest of the panel aren't bad. Esther gets a little mixed up in what she wants to say at times and is a bit hard to understand, but she appears to be trying to be fair. I think the other two women on the panel are more sympathetic toward me now.
"It isn't much fun, but you shouldn't be in there very long, so that's some compensation."
"They were at you for a long time," Sarah's voice quavered ever so slightly.
"Yes, but I'm their designated criminal. I really don't think they will treat you badly, but if they do, get up and walk out. I mean that, it goes for all of you," Trenchant said firmly.
"There's the summons. Go in there and give 'em hell, Andrea. It's party time," said Helen, patting them both on the back as they left for the hearing room.
Andrea Stern was barely sworn when Esther demanded, "are you a medical student?"
Then, suddenly realizing that she had spoken out of turn since it was Diana's prerogative to question her witnesses first, she apologized.
Trenchant immediately asked Andrea to give her name and occupation for the record. Replying to further questions, Andrea testified that she had known Diana for many years and had rented a room in her house for six of them. She attested to the overall integrity of Trenchant. Boldly, mincing no words, she fixed the panel with a friendly smile and continued.
"I think these charges are ludicrous, for two reasons. One is that when Diana Trenchant has a problem with someone, she marches right up and tells them. She is very forthright and would not do anything devious or underhanded. The second reason is that she has always had a high opinion of academic honesty."
A young woman of exceptional intelligence and ability, Andrea had graduated from Belmont, summa cum laude, with a BA, after completion of a double, self-designed major. Because of her great love and knowledge of books, she found employment in the library where she soon became indispensable. There were those at Belmont who recognized and revered exceptional ability and were not threatened by it.
On being questioned as to what she knew about work conditions in NERD, she observed that from what she had heard from Diana, it wasn't a very happy place to work. Directing her answer toward Trenchant, she divulged, "You were not my only source for this information. My aunt works in the department and I heard from both of you enough to form that impression.
"Just last month, my aunt told me that you may have been given an excessive course load in an attempt to break your spirit or drive you out of the department, much in the same way that she was given a very minimum salary increase, in an attempt to get her to move on."
Andrea continued by confirming that the laboratory manual that had been used in the course for two years was indeed written by Diana in her own home, with her own equipment and on her own time. She, Andrea, had witnessed this and had helped with the proof reading.
Feigning a bored expression that he did not feel, Henry asked if she had any evidence specific to the critiques in question.
"No, nothing specific, except if she were out to discredit someone on the faculty, she would certainly have brains enough to do something effective—not play with SmurFFs," Andrea delivered, with a chuckle. Then she continued in a serious, almost censoring tone, "I'm surprised that you actually take this charge seriously. You should have better sense. The whole campus is laughing at you."
As Henry seemed on the verge of apoplexy, Anuse quickly asked who her aunt was.
Andrea looked directly at him and answered, "Dr. Biggot. She teaches nutrition to the freshman medical students."
Esther wanted to be clear. "Your aunt confirmed in both cases, hers and Trenchant, that this was an underlying way of getting rid of them."
"Exactly. She felt that they were not welcome in the department and that this was a way to encourage them to move on."
"Now, we'll have no more of this," Henry interjected, "we really can't take second hand information here. I have already warned you people on the panel about this."
"All I did was have her repeat what she'd said already," Esther squeaked, "I didn't ask the question."
Henry was not pacified by her remark. More information positive toward Trenchant was being presented then he was willing to hear—or then he wanted the panel to hear. He turned to Trenchant and said harshly, "your witnesses must address the charge here. Since this witness does not have any information directly relating to that charge, she is excused."
Andrea glanced at Diana who nodded, then smiling brightly, she thanked the panel for listening and left the room.
"Eventually, I will call witness that will speak directly to the charge you refer to. Right now, since you have allowed massive testimony against me that had nothing to do with the specific charge you keep referring to, I mean to respond to all of those allegations.
"You wrote me a letter which I have here, saying that the hearing would not be conducted with strict rules. You stated that I could present anything that I deemed important and that is what I am doing. And, in a much briefer manner than you have presented the evidence against me. I'll remind you that you allowed plenty of hearsay testimony when your witnesses were testifying."
Henry let out an exasperated breath, turned toward the panel and said, "I think we'd better break for lunch and discuss how much of this irrelevant material we are prepared to listen to. We also will have to consider having Ann Biggot testify and bring Lyle back. We cannot let these unsubstantiated charges stand."
At the word lunch, the stenographer packed up her gear with alacrity and headed out the door closely followed by Trenchant. No words were exchanged this time, just a mutual groan of relief at their escape.