Professors, ORU headed for day in court
BY APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Sunday, December 09, 2007
6/22/08 at 1:31 AM
For more: Read the latest ORU stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
The school wants
to ban those in the
lawsuit from talking
publicly about it.
Tuesday will be Oral Roberts University's first day in
court since three former professors sued more than two
months ago and started an ongoing public debate about the
school that culminated in
Richard Roberts resigning as
president on Nov. 23.
The lawsuit: The former professors -- John Swails, Tim
Brooker and Paulita Brooker
-- are suing ORU, its board of
regents, former President
Roberts and administrators
Mark Lewandowski, Wendy
Shirk and Jeff Ogle for wrongful termination and related
claims. The professors also
are seeking to sue Oral Roberts Ministries, the ministries'
board of directors, and former ORU Regent Lindsay Roberts
in a version of their lawsuit
that has not yet been accepted
or denied by the court.
On Tuesday: The first court
hearing in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. for Tulsa County District Judge Rebecca
Nightingale to act on the following requests by defendants
ORU, Roberts and the administrators in response to the
professors' court filings:
- Throw out various versions of the lawsuit and require the professors to rewrite
their suit so the defendants
can respond to it. The defendants allege the former professors did not follow proper procedures in filing or applying to
file various versions of their
lawsuit and did not properly
format or write their lawsuit.
The defendants allege that
one version of the lawsuit
would wrongly add Oral Roberts Ministries, its board and
Lindsay Roberts as defendants
because those entities and
Lindsay Roberts never employed the professors.
- Ban participants in the
lawsuit from talking about the
lawsuit outside of court to preserve the defendants' right to
a fair trial.
- Disqualify Gary Richardson as the professors' attorney. The defendants allege
that Richardson is also the attorney for Stephanie Cantees.
The professors claim they lost
their jobs because they turned
over to ORU regents a report
that Cantees allegedly wrote. The report contains allegations of financial and other
wrongdoing by the Roberts
family. The defendants allege
that Richardson advised Cantees regarding that report, so
the defendants claim Richardson has a conflict of interest.
Richardson says he is not Cantees' attorney and did not discuss the report with her.
- Require mediation, in
which all of the parties and
their attorneys would talk
through and try to resolve the
issues.
- Throw out the professors'
requests for documents from
a pilot, a private investigator
and ORU's security director,
or review the documents and
then turn over relevant documents to the professors. The
defendants want to prevent
the documents from being
made public, and they are asking the court to stop the professors from obtaining "irrelevant" information about the
Roberts family's alleged
wrongdoing. The professors
had asked for documents that
might substantiate the report
they claim cost them their
jobs.
Expectations: Richardson
said he thinks the court could
"very possibly" accept the
most recent version of the professors' lawsuit, which they
have requested to file.
He said he does not think
his alleged conflict of interest
will amount to anything, and
he thinks the court will allow
the professors to request documents related to the report.
Richardson said he does not
know the likelihood of the
case being settled.
- Attorneys for the defendants declined to talk publicly
about the suit because they
are asking the court to stop
the professors and their attorneys from doing so.
April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Former ORU professor
John Swails (from left),
his wife, Joy, and
former professors
Paulita and Tim
Brooker stand across
the street from the
Oral Roberts University
campus. John Swails
and the Brookers have
sued the school and
others for wrongful
termination. Their
lawsuit will have its
first court hearing
Tuesday.
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