School, Lindsay Roberts deny all
BY APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Sunday, October 14, 2007
10/19/07 at 2:06 PM
The latest on this story: Wait on outside probe, ORU alums urged
Vote in a poll: Controversy and rumors continue to swirl around Oral Roberts University and President Richard Roberts has taken an indefinite leave of absence. Do you think ORU will survive this controversy intact?
Oral Roberts University and its president's wife, Lindsay Roberts, issued
written statements Saturday saying that
claims and accusations added to a lawsuit Friday are untrue.
A report attached to the lawsuit Friday contains allegations that Roberts,
51, spent a great deal of time with an underage male.
"I live my life in
a morally upright
manner and
throughout my
marriage have
never, ever engaged in any sexual behavior with
any man outside
of my marriage as
the accusations
imply," Roberts
said in her statement.
"Allegations
against me in a lawsuit yesterday are
not true. They sicken me to my soul,"
she said.
The lawsuit, as amended Friday, also
added ORU's board of regents as a defendant and contained a new legal claim
that the board had neglected to oversee,
authorize and supervise the conduct of
the defendants ORU, President Richard
Roberts and university administrators
Mark Lewandowski, Wendy Shirk and
Jeff Ogle, as evidenced by those parties
allegedly allowing a "convicted sexual
deviant unrestricted access to the students of the university" as a
"mentor" hired by Richard
Roberts to work with students.
A written statement attributed to the university says, "The
allegations that the university
employed a sexual deviant are
untrue."
The plaintiffs, three former
ORU professors, support their
claim of negligence by alleging in the suit that the board
allowed ORU and Richard
Roberts to fire ORU's comptroller and then shred and destroy "voluminous materials
and documents . . . constituting spoilation of evidence."
The two-sentence statement
from ORU also says, "The allegations that the university purposely or improperly destroyed documents are also
untrue."
The allegations and claims
are part of a lawsuit filed Oct. 2
in Tulsa County District Court
by John Swails, Tim Brooker
and Paulita Brooker, who
claim that they were wrongfully fired or forced to resign
from ORU. Brooker charges
that Richard Roberts required
him to involve his students in
a Tulsa mayoral campaign in violation of federal laws for
tax-exempt organizations.
The three also claim that
they were fired or forced to resign after they turned over to
the board of regents a report
at least partially written by
Lindsay Roberts' sister, Stephanie Cantees.
Richard Roberts said the 3-year-old report from Cantees
listed untrue rumors that she
was letting him know about.
Richard Roberts claimed that
the report referenced in the
lawsuit contained additional false allegations that he had
never seen before.
Swails said at a press conference Oct. 2 that he and his fellow plaintiffs, upon receiving
Cantees' report, told one another, "We hope it's not true."
Lindsay Roberts said in her
statement Saturday that "the
part that grieves me the most"
is the spreading of the allegations through the media
"when the parties suing have
continued to say they don't
even know if these allegations
are true."
"I believe it's grossly unfair
to allow such speculation to be
used against me and attached
to a lawsuit in which I am not
even named as a party," she
said. "I firmly believe that my
vindication will certainly come
in the court of law in the future
and I am issuing this statement because I am unwilling
to idly sit by and be accused of
actions that are not true."
April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Richard and Lindsay Roberts stand outside the CNN building in New York City after their appearance on
“Larry King Live” earlier this month.
Richard and Lindsay Roberts stand outside the CNN building in New York City after their appearance on
“Larry King Live” earlier this month.
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