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At a hearing, the judge said she will review requested documents.

Most legal claims in a lawsuit against Oral Roberts University are going forward, a judge decided Tuesday.

Tulsa County District Judge Rebecca Brett Nightingale also said she will review documents requested by the former professors who sued before distributing them to those involved in the lawsuit.

Nightingale considered several requests by ORU and other defendants, including three requests to dismiss the lawsuit, during the case's second court hearing.

Former ORU professors Tim and Paulita Brooker -- along with professor John Swails, who settled his portion of the case in January -- first filed the lawsuit in October, claiming that they had wrongfully lost their jobs.

In November, the Brookers subpoenaed Sam Douglass, a pilot, for aircraft records involving ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association; Jerry Isaacs, ORU's security director, for records of who entered the on-campus presidential housing compound; and Lee Belmonte, a private investigator, for documents and materials related to a report of the president's family's alleged wrongdoing.

The Brookers allege that they lost their jobs because they turned over the report to ORU leaders.

Nightingale stopped the subpoena against Belmonte, saying, "The truth of that report is completely irrelevant as to what the plaintiffs are required to prove."

The judge allowed the other subpoenas to go forward and scheduled the documents to be due to her by April 16.

She will scan them and then pass along relevant documents to those involved in the lawsuit. The lawyers will mark documents, such as tax re turns, financial information and personnel and medical records, as confidential and make the remaining documents public.

Paul Boudreaux, an attorney for the Brookers, said the information about who entered the Roberts' compound and who flew on the ORU plane could support the Brookers' claim that there was a conspiracy against them.

Claims dismissed: Also Tuesday, Nightingale dismissed breach-of-contract claims against former ORU President Richard Roberts and ORU administrators Wendy Shirk and Jeff Ogle because, she said, any actions those officials would have taken would have been as ORU or Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association employees.

ORU and the evangelistic association employed the Brookers, not the administrators as individuals, she said.

Breach-of-contract claims against ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association are going forward.

Nightingale dismissed claims that ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association allegedly interfered with the Brookers' contracts because organizations cannot interfere with contracts of which they are a part. Interference claims continue against Roberts, Shirk and Ogle.

Nightingale dismissed legal claims of libel against all of the defendants. She also dismissed Oral Roberts Ministries as a defendant. She agreed with defense lawyers that Oral Roberts Ministries is a trade name for the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and cannot be sued. The evangelistic association, however, is still a defendant.

April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com