The Verdict Is In!!

I'm finally done with Jury duty.

The sucky thing is that I spent 8 1/2 days there, and didn't even get to stick around for the deliberations. Our case ran longer than it was supposed to. I blame the Plaintiff's lawyer. She was slow, she paused for way too long in between questions, and she would ask the same question a bunch of times over. Even the judge seemed annoyed with her. Anyhow, due to Rosh Hashanah starting Monday evening, I had to be excused. I was excused at 4pm Monday. I got to sit through the closing arguments, and then the Judge explaining the law, and what exactly we were supposed to be deciding on.

I was told by my buddy on the jury that they deliberated for 1 1/2 hours. And that was only because of the one lady I knew would be a problem from the beginning. Otherwise they would have been out of there much quicker than that. I'm happy to know that they came to the right decisions.

The case was a civil lawsuit. Antonio Vernon, a former Finance PhD student at the University of Chicago was suing the university, and the former head of the PhD program, Milton Harris for breech of contract. He maintains that Dean Harris was "Out to get him" and set him up to fail.

It all started in 2000 when Vernon was accepted into the PhD program. He had been attending Wash U for his Phd, and was three years into their program when he was recruited into the U of C program. Wash U gave him a Masters in Statistics so he wouldn't feel like he wasted the past three years. Tony left Wash U for two reasons. Wash U is only a top 30 school, while U of C is a top three school. Also because U of C was offering him a grant call the G.E. Fund, Faculty for the Future. It is a fund set up to bring minority students into PhD programs. U of C got $125,000 to recruit two students. It paid for tuition and a yearly stipend for the first three years (of a five year program. the university agreed to pay tuition and stipend for the remaining two years.) It also provided a huge amount of money for tutoring, and they got mentoring. Tony knew this was a great deal and moved to Chicago.

He started off on the wrong foot with the administration by handing Dean Harris (who will from here on out be referred to as Milt) a long "wishlist" of things we wanted from the school. Money for this, money for that, money money money. Oh, and he wanted more money for his stipend. All PhD students get a stipend. $15,000 for the first year, and $10,000 for each year after that. Tony was getting $20,000 for the first year, and $15,000 for each year after. So he was already getting $5,000 more a year than everyone else. But it wasn't enough for him. So he fought and fought with the Admin until they gave him an additional $2500 per year.

A year later, he caused trouble again. Students are encouraged to write a paper at the end of Year One. It isn't graded, but it helps the students, and the teachers see where they are as far as their research skills. Tony decides to write his, but picks a topic he needs to buy data for. Of course he thinks the school should buy the Data Set for him. He is told that it isn't in the budget, but he keeps pushing. He basically goes to everyone in the PhD program trying to get them to buy this data for him. Finally he decides the money can come out of the GE Fund (as if that is his decision to make.) He is told that if he wants the money come from the GE Fund, he has to give something up. He doesn't grasp the concept that if you take money from one place it isn't there anymore. He argues with them, until he ACTUALLY contacts someone at G.E. He essentially tells them that the university is keeping "his" money away from him. The person at GE is pissed that he was contacted by a student. Tony eventually gets his Data Set, but it comes out of his tutoring money. It turns out Tony never bothered to do the preliminary research needed to find out whether or not he actually NEEDED the data. So that whole time he was just fighting and fighting for no reason.

Tony is an interesting guy. He was in his mid to late 30's when he was enrolled at U of C. Not married. Really into Martial Arts. He was a fifth level black belt in Ti Kwan Do. He calls himself "Chicago's premier leading expert in non projectile weapons." Such as, nunchucks, butterfly knives, and bow staffs. As he said "Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Ha. Oh, I must not forget to tell you that he gave himself the most amazing nickname. "The Jackie Chan Of Chicago." For real. No one else calls him that. The Defense made him admit it on the stand and I'm endlessly amused by that. So anyway, the guy has an inflated ego and he loves to give demonstrations to girls.

Year Two, Tony whips out his Butterfly Knife (which he carries on him at all times) three different times. Once at a PhD social event 'Brats and Brew' once in the computer lab, and once in the middle of his Asset Pricing class.

This is Mr. Brilliant's explanation of what happened...(I am loosely quoting since I wasn't allowed to take my notes home with me.)
"I am right handed, and I had a band-aid on my right index finger that was impeding my writing. So I took out my B_K (butterfly knife) and cut off the band-aid under my desk."

Another student saw this, and sent him an email after class letting him know that people in polite society do not whip out knives in public, and he can get kicked out of school if an administrator sees him doing it. Tony's response is "I do not care who I offend with my weapons."

So the student goes to the Dean of Students (Christine Gramhoffer) and complains. Christine contacts Milt to make him aware of the situation. She tells him he needs to have a meeting with Tony, take the B_K from him, and hold a disciplinary hearing. Milt has the meeting with Tony, where tony gives up his knife, and Milt decides no disciplinary hearing is needed. He tells Tony that his B_K is not allowed on campus.

This is when the shit-storm begins. Tony starts contacting campus police EVERYDAY wanting them to give him a "good" reason why he cannot carry his B_K. They are legal in Illinois and therefore he cannot grasp why the fuck they would not be legal on a collage campus. He will not accept that University law supersedes Illinois law. He begins contacting every single dean in the PhD program. He feels that his "rights as a US citizen, and as an Illinois citizen" have been torn from him.

At some point during this, he is told by Grace Chan (Dean of student affairs) that he can carry an army knife, because it is a tool. She is the one in charge of the student manual, so she is the only one authorized to tell him this. Tony researches and finds out that there are 500 different types. He starts sending emails to all the deans again asking for clarification. Specifically, he wants a comprehensive list of all knives acceptable on campus. This is right after 9/11 keep in mind. He is told time and time again that the University cannot write that list, but take knives on a case by case basis. Meaning, if he would email Grace Chan with a examples she could tell him which one is ok before he buys it. But no.... that is not acceptable. He goes back and forth between flipping out about them not letting him carry his B_K, and them not giving him one list with all the knives acceptable. He starts sending out insane emails. He sends one to Milt and Roberta Bernstein (Milt's assistant, and the Dean of something or other) after they clarify that none of his Martial Arts Weapons are allowed on campus saying that his B_K is not a dangerous weapon, He is in fact scared of Grandmothers "Wielding" knitting needles, and workers using box cutters to open boxes. He calls Milt and Roberta racist and a slew of other names. He sends another one informing them that they are discriminating against one handed people by not allowing the only one handed knife legal in Illinois. He sends yet another complaining that there are fifteen martial arts clubs on campus, and are they not allowed to have martial arts weapons? -the response he got to that email was that all students are expected to follow the handbook rules. Including members of clubs, who are not allowed to take the weapons out of the buildins they practice in.-

My favorite: He ACTUALLY contacts the office of Sen. Bob Dole to inform him that the University is discriminating against one handed people. LOL. Bob Dole! Because he only has one hand! LOL!!!

He sends a few letters to the President of the University, even after being told that he should not. He was sent multiple letters warning him that he is harassing the administration, and he will have a disciplinary charges brought against him if he does not cut it out. He is told he is not allowed to contact a whole list of people, or he will be in trouble. The president of the University's name was not on the list, so he sends him another letter. He tells him that he has contacted Bob Dole, he tells him that Milt and the rest of the PhD admin are (essentially) pieces of crap, and if he upholds their decisions, then He (Tony) will have a big problem with his (the president's) office as well. That letter was forwarded to Milt, with the president's instructions to start a Disciplinary Hearing process.

Milt still is hoping that Tony will just cut it out, so so asks one of the Deans, Dean Snyder to talk to Tony. Tony and Snyder had a previous relationship at another collage, so Milt is hoping Snyder can talk some sense into Tony. During the meeting Dean Snyder asks Tony if they could have one last meeting with Milt, Roberta, Grace Chan and a few of the other Deans Tony has been sending insane emails to. He wants everyone to sit in one room and talk things out with Tony. Tony says no. At THAT point, Milt drafts the charge letter.
Between that time and the actual hearing date things get even weirder. Tony ignores the dates the give him (he had one week to respond to the charges, he took over three.) Tony sends them back, not a response but COUNTER-CHARGES. 8 pages of counter charges. The man is seriously off his rocker. He demands that he charges are responded to. The charges range from Milt and Roberta being Racist, to the University violating Illinois law, to Milt and the President of the University being in a "pissing contest". He also suggests that he carry a Trainer B_K, since a trainer has a duller blade. He completely ignores the charges (inappropriate communications and conduct with University admin) and continues to plow ahead with his mouth-diarrhea. He refuses to understand that the charges have NOTHING to do with him whipping out his B_K IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS, or other places on campus.

The day of the hearing he brings in a bow staff, two butterfly knives, and two butterfly knife trainers. He proceeds to give them a presentation of his skills. Like that would make a fucking difference.
The Hearing Board consists of two PhD faculty, and two PhD students. Milt is there as the head of the PhD, and another Dean, John Huizinga (who is Milt's boss) is leading the hearing.

Tony is asked if he understands the charges, and he responds that he understood it was about him harassing people, but now there are other "false charges." He is asked what he would do if the hearing board demands he stop contacting faculty about the knives. Tony responds that he would have to stop, but he would be forced to "bring someone else in to fight for him."
The board recommends he seeks counseling. They also suspend him for one and a half quarters. They were currently in the summer quarter, and Tony wasn't taking classes, so essentially they only suspended him for one quarter.

Tony of course appeals. The appeal board upholds the decision, and Tony hires a lawyer. He starts a discrimination suit and a few other bogus charges.

He is still going to classes mind you. He fails a few classes, and writes an abysmal pre-dissertation paper. Normally if a student writes a bad pre-dissertation paper they are kicked out of the program. Tony is allowed to continue for another year, regardless of his poor grades and terrible paper. He finally gets excused from the program when he continues to fail core classes he is required to get A or B in.

He drops the stupid lawsuits, and sues the university for Breech of Contract and Professor Milton Harris for tortuous breech of contract.
It's all crap, and I am beyond happy that the rest of the Jury thought so too. Milt didn't do anything wrong. If anything he went well well well out of his way, and bent over backwards for Tony. Tony is just an ungrateful shit. He is a grown ass adult who is selfish and expects everything in the world without working for it, or deserving it.

Tony's lawyer sucked too. She looked like a female version of Jack Nicholson's Joker with no makeup on. She dressed horribly. Worst yet, she seemed to know that they didn't have a case so she wasted everyone time going back and forth with her questioning. She clearly tried to confuse the jury and twist very linear things into knots. She tried to bring internal memos into public status (there was a memo from Roberta to Milt with Tony's charges phrased a little differently and she tried to convince us that they have "tricked" Tony by sending him a slightly different wording.) She was disorganized, she didn't know her case or the exhibits (of which there were almost 200) she asked questions that did not make any sense whatsoever. She did however, do an excellent job of proving the Defense's case for them. Every time she was done with a witness (who she had on the stand for two days) they would only have to ask maybe twenty minutes of questions before resting with that witness. She tried to trick the court into allowing exhibits that had no bearing, or simply should not have been admitted. She tried to get Tony's pre-dissertation paper admitted even though the defense had never seen it. Also, it was dated almost a year after he handed it in, which means it was probably edited. Oh, speaking of that, Tony's response to his paper not being accepted was to say, "The people who read my paper simply do not contain the knowledge or intelligence to understand my paper." Seriously. Even though his paper was graded by one PhD student, and TWO professors. Including one who is an expert in the field Tony based his research off of. lol. He is such a delusional fuck.

So to recap.

Tony is a moron who's case REALLY never should have made it as far as it did. He is an angry and argumentative man.

Tony's lawyer knew she had no case. She wasted everyone's time, and is a scary looking lady.

Milt seems like a seriously nice man who got pulled into a confusing and bad lawsuit. Milt also wore the cutest tweed jackets that scream "I'm a professor!" I have to admit I have a huge platonic old man crush on him.

Milt's (and the University's)lawyers rocked. They were on their game, they knew their facts, and they didn't try to play us like idiots like Tony's lawyer. They also didn't waste our time.

Oh, and just one thing I forgot, Tony's lawyer TOTALLY lied in her closing arguments about something that was well documented. *L* Stupid lady.