Ex-professor has history with lawsuits
BY ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor
Sunday, November 04, 2007
11/05/07 at 10:46 AM
For more: Read the latest stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
A former Oral Roberts University
professor who is suing the university
has been plaintiff and defendant in at
least half a dozen lawsuits and has
been investigated in a stock scheme
in Arkansas, records show.
Since 2000, Tim Brooker has filed
at least four state and federal lawsuits
against various officials in Arkansas
and other states. Brooker also has
been a defendant in at least two civil
lawsuits during that time, records
show.
All of the lawsuits were thrown out
and none resulted in judgments, records show.
Brooker is one of three former professors suing Oral
Roberts University, Richard
Roberts and other defendants.
The suit claims Brooker was
forced to resign and his wife,
Paulita, and Professor John
Swails were wrongfully fired.
The suit claims the actions
came after Tim Brooker and
Swails gave the university's regents a document containing
various allegations involving
Roberts and his wife. The suit
also claims Roberts ordered
Brooker and students in
Brooker's government class to
work for Randi Miller's campaign for mayor of Tulsa.
The lawsuit is the latest in a
series of suits Brooker has
filed or been named as a defendant in, records show.
Sheriff dispute: Former Benton County, Ark., Sheriff Andy
Lee, who served seven terms
in office before retiring in
2002, was a frequent target of
Brooker's lawsuits and claims,
records show.
Lee said when he first met
Brooker, Brooker was advocating parole of a convicted
rapist to Benton County, Ark.
Lee said he declined to support the request, which angered Brooker.
The man, Wayne DuMond,
had been convicted of raping a
teenage girl who was a distant
relative of Bill Clinton. DuMond's case had become a national news story in the early
1990s when Clinton, then governor, intervened to halt DuMond's parole, according to
news accounts.
Brooker, who hosted a conservative talk radio show at
the time, said he used his
show to call for DuMond's release.
''I just felt like he'd been
mistreated,'' Brooker said during an interview last week.
DuMond was released in
1999 to Missouri, where he
killed a woman the next year.
DuMond died in prison two
years ago.
Lee said the lawsuit against
ORU by Brooker ''sounds like
standard operating procedure
to me.''
''They are good at creating
images of what they allege is
going on. They are very good
at getting up to the line and
not crossing it. . . . I think he's
a very brilliant-minded person.''
But Brooker said the lawsuits were ''the only tool at the
time to get the truth out.'' He
said he had information about
widespread corruption in
Lee's office.
In 2000, Brooker sued Lee
and nine other defendants in
federal court in Arkansas, alleging the sheriff had violated
the federal organized crime
act known as RICO. Besides
his radio show, Brooker was
also an adjunct professor at
John Brown University, a private Christian university in Siloam Springs, Ark., where he
still lives.
Lee said he was cleared in
all of the investigations and
the lawsuits were all thrown
out.
''You name it, every campaign season something came
to the surface and was talked
about on Tim Brooker's radio
program,'' Lee said.
''They said I was stealing helicopter parts, selling helicopter parts; they said I had a cargo 180 aircraft parked behind
the jail. They caused I forget
how many state and federal investigations and they applied
for two grand jury investigations.''
Jim Bolt: Brooker often filed
his lawsuits with a business
partner, Jim Bolt, the editor of
an Arkansas online magazine.
Records show Bolt has three
previous convictions in Oklahoma and Arkansas and has
served time in federal prison.
Brooker said he was aware
of Bolt's criminal history but
believed ''that he was really a
changed man.''
In 2001, while employed by
ORU, Brooker was named
CEO of Golf Entertainment
Inc., a publicly traded company. In a news release at the
time, Brooker said the Georgia-based company had been
inactive but had recently
signed a deal with Genesis
Trust of Bentonville, Ark. Golf
Entertainment moved its offices to Springdale, Ark.
Brooker said then that Golf
Entertainment planned to acquire broadcast television assets and operate television stations in Spanish language
markets. Bolt was listed as
chief operating officer and
vice president of the company.
Brooker said he agreed to
head the company but didn't
really understand the details.
He said Bolt asked him to
head the company because
Bolt, a convicted criminal, was
prevented from doing so due
to SEC regulations.
''I didn't realize he was going to use a publicly traded
company. He asked me, 'Are
you willing to do this?' and I
said tentatively yes."
One year later, Golf Entertainment filed a federal suit
under the RICO Act against 19
defendants, including the operators of an Internet Web site
that provided investment advice. In a news release, Brooker was quoted as saying that
his company was pursuing organized ''bashing'' of its stock
on Internet chat rooms and
message boards.
The Web site's operators countersued, naming Brooker
and other defendants as part
of a ''sham operation'' involving Golf Entertainment. The
federal suit states that Golf Entertainment issued ''misleading news releases'' in an effort
to inflate its stock, which the
company planned to sell to the
public.
Brooker said he did not
write the news releases quoting him.
''Bolt wrote those things. . . .
He was writing press releases
that put words in my mouth.''
That month, in August 2002,
U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., asked the U.S. Justice
Department to investigate
Golf Entertainment for alleged
manipulation of stock and defrauding investors, according
to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
On Aug. 22, 2002, Brooker
resigned as CEO of Golf Entertainment, citing a ''contractual conflict of interest'' with
his job at Oral Roberts University, according to the Arkansas Business Journal. The resignation came after reporters
for the Journal contacted ORU
about Brooker while investigating his role in Golf Entertainment.
Brooker said by that time,
he wasn't involved in running
the company, though he was still listed as its CEO. He said
ORU asked him to formally resign from Golf Entertainment
and he agreed to do so.
Two months later, the Arkansas Securities Department
issued a cease and desist order against Brooker, Bolt,
Golf Entertainment and other
related defendants, records
show. The order states that
the stock transfer and sales by
Golf Entertainment and Genesis were in violation of Arkansas law.
"I had no idea," Brooker
said of Golf Entertainment's
operations. "I let them put my
name on things and that was
my big mistake. I didn't understand the stock laws."
In one SEC filing, the company states that Brooker holds
dual doctorates in public sector administration and psychotherapy and is a "recognized
expert in the field of performance based budgeting."
In 2003, Brooker filed a libel
suit against the Northwest Arkansas
Business Journal following
a lengthy investigation
by the newspaper into Golf Entertainment’s
operations. The
lawsuit was dismissed by a
judge.
Oral Roberts University:
Gary Richardson, the attorney
who filed suit against ORU,
said officials there were aware
of Brooker’s lawsuits and dealings
with Golf Entertainment
and continued to employ him.
“Dr. Brooker was hired with
his history being what it was
and they continued to hire
him,” Richardson said.
City Councilor Rick Westcott
coordinated ORU’s government
program and helped
interview Brooker in 2001. He
said the decision to hire
Brooker was ultimately up to
Swails.
Westcott said Brooker’s
role in Golf Entertainment
never came up during the interview
process.
“Tim struck me as someone
very knowledgeable about
campaigns and citizen involvement
in the political process,”
Westcott said.
Ziva Branstetter 581-8378
ziva.branstetter@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
TARGET
Tim Brooker: As CEO of Golf Entertainment, he
was named in a countersuit over the company’s
operations.
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