Breaking: Ward Churchill verdict reached…mixed; $1 awarded for damages
In Denver, the verdict in the Ward Churchill trial was just read.
The jury found that University of Colorado terminated him based on his speech, but awarded him $0 for past economic harm and $1 for current damages.
Caplis and Silverman, lawyers who have followed the case closely and host a top talk show on 630KHOW, say it should be seen as victory for CU. Interpretation: Jury found him to be an academic fraud undeserving of restitution.
Denver blog Slapstick Politics has liveblogging. More coverage at Complete Colorado.
And from fraud-busting blog Pirate Ballerina, a definitive analysis blasting CU’s botched defense:
Since we’ve made no effort to hide our contempt for CU attorney Patrick O’Rourke’s mishandling of his defense of CU, it should come as no surprise to our readers that we now lay CU’s defeat directly at O’Rourke’s clown shoes. Churchill did not win this case; O’Rourke lost it. And since all problems can be traced back to management, CU is the
CU’s Achilles’ heel has always been its own sloth and incompetence, in the hiring process, the investigatory process, and finally, in the legal defense process. CU administrators were aware that Churchill’s scholarship qualifications consisted of a few mostly co-authored screeds on the usual leftist memes, and a masters degree in a bonehead major from an experimental college, yet they hired him as an Ethnic Studies professor with tenure. And CU administrators were made aware of serious problems with Churchill’s version(s) of history long before the “Little Eichmanns” essay re-emerged from obscurity back in January 2005, yet they did nothing.
It took the public outrage surrounding that essay to finally goad CU into action, putting into motion a process that lasted four years. Churchill had every opportunity to present his case, and in every instance he failed. His termination back in 2007 was the result, as was his inevitable suit against CU, the conclusion of which we have before us today.
Once the initial public outrage faded, unfortunately, CU returned, to its happy place: sloth and incompetence. During the trial, David Lane used CU’s own witnesses to illustrate those qualities, and CU’s attorney, Patrick O’Rourke was unable to counter Lane’s sallies simply because O’Rourke exemplifies CU’s commitment to sloth and incompetence. Perhaps he is a shark feared by medical litigants worldwide, but in a civil rights case with a very obvious villain (and admittedly a less-than-sympathetic good guy), O’Rourke was hopelessly outmatched.
And so, of course, Churchill won. It is a sad commentary that CU was unable to defeat a documented plagiarist and historical fraud, but we consider it the inevitable result of decades of sloth and incompetence. As others have noted with elegant simplicity, CU deserves Churchill. The question Colorado voters (and CU alumni) must now ask themselves is equally simple: Does CU deserve their support?
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Categories: Ward Churchill
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Chickens coming home to roost, indeed!
Justice.
what a dope.
Che Churchill…you’re free now to go teach in Venezuela.
Insulting. To the Blowhard Professor, that is.
Thank you, jurors!
I am anticipating sanctimonious whining from Churchill, to which I graciously offer to increase his award by 25% so he can call someone who cares.
I like it.
The verdict is right in a sense. You don’t universities to be able to fire based purely on political/historical opinion. Even if it should apply to somebody as batcrap crazy as Ward, you don’t want to allow a precedent that could be later twisted to endanger the few remaining conservative professors out there.
But the $1 judgment is a nice middle finger right back at him.
Did I skim this correctly?
The jury confirmed that CU damaged him, but determined that he’s only worth $1?
That’s the best possible outcome.
Brilliant!
I hope he can’t appeal the award…
Just finished browsing your advertisers website, Founding Bloggers, good stuff.
Pyrrhic victory?
Thank you juriors for your verdict. Nice to hear some sane people still can see through this slug.
L
GO RAMS!
tee-hee /CSU alumnus
I will defer to Chap, but does his lawyer get 33 cents of that dollar?
Awesome! I was on a jury once for a frivolous lawsuit against the state (of TX) where the documentary evidence undermining the plaintiffs case was a mile wide and 2 miles deep (her attorney should be charged with malpractice for even letting her sue in the first place). Nevertheless, the judge worded his instructions in a way that we practically had to find for the plaintiff. So we did … and awarded her exactly $1 in damages (which was about 99 cents more than she deserved).
The question on my mind is – which slothful, incompetent, America-hating university will hire on Ward Churchill to continue his …whateveritishedo.
I think $1 was too much for the likes of this traitor and fraud.
…wonder if the Congress will tax him 90% of his award?
So yes he was fired for his speech. This is true. But his speech was worth exactly $1. Which is probably also true.
Jutice is right.
You all have this wrong.
They really awarded him $1 Million dollars in 2009 currency which would have only been worth $1 back in 2008.
Hmmm, maybe we should call the new global reserve currency ‘the Obama’. $1 Million Obamas = $1 Dollar or so.
Ironically, I read where Churchill got the job as an “ethnic studies” professor due to his claiming to be part Indian. Which, as it turned out, was a lie too.
So, he lies on his resume, plagiarizes, and CU can’t say that’s the reason and stand behind it? It’s enough to get anyone who wasn’t a loudmouth ass fired in a minute. Apparently someone admired his asinine gray ponytail more than the truth about this clueless empty suit taxpayer teat-sucking fraud.
lgm’s rebuttal in 3,2,1.
He’s always struck me as someone who, if it weren’t for the university system, would still be living on the couch at his mom’s.
Shades of QB VII.
Much like tipping a penny for poor service! LMAO!
What a poser. He became a socialist for the college chicks…they used to dig the Revolutionary types.
Let’s see if I’ve got this correct?
Jury:The poor guy got screwed.But he’s such a sumbag were only going to give him a dollar.
That would be like being on trail for murder and the jury saying: He’s innocent, but were going to give him a life anyhow.
Was this jury made up of democrats?
Except that if a jury finds a defendant innocent of a crime, they cannot recommend a sentence of life.
He’s fake, a phony and a fraud!
He and Bill Ayers can run off into the sunset together….
His skunkstreak hair and those chiclet teeth, maybe code pink has an opening for him….
I despise this turd-
Yessss!!!
And with apologies to all other turds.
$1 in damages. I hope they pay him with pennies.
Maybe you should get your facts in order. That is not why he was fired.
Wish Hiawatha would sit on the muzzle of that AK and pull the trigger.
Does he have to pay his lawyer 40%?
I think Churchill came out ahead: the court could have awarded him an iPod of show tunes!
I hear there’s one available…
He didn’t get what he deserved (but drawing and quartering IS considered cruel and unusual punishment). And his losses were probably inflated at $1. But, it seems the university and this clod were made for each other. If this lying piece of trash can’t be fired then nobody in American can…
funny!
P.S. Even though he prevailed, justice was still served…maybe common sense isn’t dead after all.
yipppeee for the good guys…Sure he’d be more than welcome at one of the Ivy League schools, after all they are so much more enlightened than the rest of the nation’s schools.
Priceless!
My pick for post of the day!
It would have been better if they just gave him 25 cents and then played the Travis Tritt classic:
“Here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.”
He should be paid his $1 in counterfeit money, to symbolize the fraud that he is. But here’s the kicker: the jury gave him a buck, but what you don’t read is that the school will, in all likelihood, have to cough up hundreds of thousands for his attorney fees. Sometimes juries don’t realize that a tiny win for a plaintiff is a huge windfall for his or her attorney, and oftentimes plaintiffs have a back-door deal with their attorney to split those fees 50/50. Churchill will get six figures out of this, mark my words.
Damn fraud.
The $1 award for damages is way too much. I dislike very much this Ward Churchill person; I cringed each time I thought about the vile hatred he had spewed in class.
Hey Ward! Why don’t you take that dollar and hit the casinos with all your Indian friends?!
Alpha Mike Foxtrot
Sweet
P.S. I love pictures of men like Churchill in camo gear and an AK-47.
If he ever was in a real firefight he’d wet his pants and beg for mommy.
I listened to that episode of Craplis and Silverman and heard the verdict read. A few things jump out at me: One, that CU’s defense was bordering on retarded. Two, that the $1 award was due to the jury’s disgust with Churchill’s past speech/writings, which is ironic as they sided with him in regards to his firing being a speech issue. Three, that Dan Craplis is an idiot – he spent great potions of the show at the beginning of the trial gloating over the amazing legal acumen of O’Rourke and basically guaranteeing a CU win. Although if anyone here is familiar with Craplis, they know he has a history of horrible predictions.
More ramifications to come I imagine, but giving Chief Ward LyingWhiteEyes $1.00 seems fair. A good years salary for Ethnic Studies, Gender, Queer Studies and such. If our Universities have money for such nonsense they have too much money.
Arizona State University pays it’s President, Michael M. Crow, $700,000 a year hoping he will do something right some day. His Indian name is Chief ForlornHope.
Liberal Universities (I am plagiarizing this in the spirit of the case): “So open minded their brains have fallen out.”
And we wonder why 3rd world countries are passing us by in academia. Sheesh.
Ah, but you’ve all missed that the judge will most likely make CU give him his job back. And if they don’t, Churchill’s lawyer has promised another lawsuit.
So Churchill will have the last laugh.
The Bureau of Land Management has determined that his $1 will be paid in wampum.
vickisoup, sad to say I believe your right…I had the impression(wrong) he was fired for plagiarism, not his idiotic remark about 911.
RATS!
hope I didn’t offend any rats out there.
I give up. Pay this clown for his contract and be done with it. If he insists on his job back, give him a cubicle and no teaching at all.
One of the jurors was on the “Caplis & Silverman” radio show today.
Dan Caplis was predictably effusive in ladling on the gratitude for “Bethany”(?) being on the phone – they gently asked her questions about the trial and verdict.
Holy Crap – that woman was an IDIOT!
Most of her answers were tantamount to “Oh, gee – I don’t… you guys use a lot of words!”
Clearly, one of the most egregious examples of allowing the comatose to engage in public service.
Want to share the pain? She’s supposed to be on with them again tomorrow, 3-6MT.
– MuscleDaddy
Best take I’ve seen on this, from Coyote Blog.
Excerpt:
Well, I think this is outrageous. Does this mean the university has to take him back? Sure, the $1 in damages is a little inflated, and I guess we’ll have to live with that, but do they actually have to put this guy back in the classroom? That’s absurd! Absurdity is what you get more and more these days from state-funded institutions, so maybe its no more than what we should expect.
Does the fact that churchhill won a settlement, prevent him trying to sue CU, again? If that is the case, then it was a good decision.
Now he is free to go travel with that unrepentant terrorist, william ayers! We saw via Jason Mattera’s excellent videos that there are still plenty of kooks out there ready to follow his leadership!
Now Churchill is free to join the Obama cabinet. I heard the Messiah is looking for a few good radical socialist idiots.
Excellent cabinet pick – how hard can it be to pay your taxes on a dollar anyway.
I think he should be taxed 90% on that windfall!
Two bits for a two-bit traitor.
Plus expenses. Don’t forget about that.
No problem Chap and Churchill can come over and mow my 1,892 acre lawn to be gainfully employed during the appeal. Summer is coming and I am an Equal Opportunity Employer.
I looked up the attorney (Lane) in this one, did not really find too much. I hope he eats it on this one. Since there is not much on him, he may be a new attorney. He may try to mark it up as a win, but this will surely still tarnish his reputation and rightfully so for taking a case like this.
What do you call a million attorneys at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start!!!
Oh…and as for that other unhinged academic loon, Deb Frisch? She’s still unemployed…and her mug shot just got circulated last week.
mug shot!
Deb Frisch…still unemployed…