University Accused of Cheating To Win Bush Library

[dcpony]

New York Sun
University Accused of Cheating To Win Bush Library
By MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 28, 2006


WASHINGTON - The legal drama surrounding the George W. Bush Presidential Library is heating up as the school favored to receive the institution, Dallas's Southern Methodist University, finds itself accused of trying to manipulate the legal process in order to ensure a lawsuit against the school is heard before an SMU-affiliated judge.

The initial lawsuit against SMU alleges that the school violated its legal obligations to local homeowners in an effort to secure land currently occupied by the University Gardens condominium complex, a potential site for the library. The lawsuit, currently in Dallas County's 134th Civil District Court, was brought last fall by a resident of the complex and a local lawyer, Gary Vodicka.

According to correspondence obtained by The New York Sun, SMU's legal defense in the case, led by a prominent Dallas attorney, John McElhaney, is requesting that the suit be moved to Dallas's 101st Civil District Court, presided over by Judge Jay Patterson.

Mr. Patterson is a graduate of SMU's law school, and is the field supervisor of an externship program through which SMU law students earn course credit.

Mr. Vodicka said yesterday that the effort to get the case transferred to a different court was an "outrageous" move by SMU "to cherry pick their own judge" friendlier to the university. He has filed an objection against the case's being moved. Judge Patterson has not recused himself from the lawsuit.

Judge Patterson declined to issue specific comment on the pending litigation, but both Messrs. Vodicka and McElhaney said that in a conference call with parties to the suit last Friday, Mr. Patterson said he felt the case should be heard in his court, the 101st. Messrs. Patterson and McElhaney yesterday said they felt the judge faced no conflict of interest in the case.

Mr. McElhaney, himself an SMU grad, also responded yesterday that the effort to move the lawsuit was an effort to keep Mr. Vodicka, who had filed his lawsuit in Dallas's 101st and 95th District Courts before finding co-plaintiffs in the 134th, from "forum shopping." Mr. Vodicka had dismissed his own cases in the 95th and 101st District Courts, and the presiding judge of the 95th, Karen Johnson, recused herself from the case, leaving only Mr. Patterson with jurisdiction, Mr. McElhaney said.

"This is a corrective action combating Vodicka's improper action," said Mr. McElhaney, a self-described friend and former colleague of the current White House Counsel, Harriet Miers. Ms. Miers, who received both her undergraduate and law degrees from SMU, is a former managing partner of Mr. McElhaney's current firm, Locke, Liddell & Sapp, before transitioning to the White House. She is also an adviser to the Bush Presidential Library selection committee.

SMU's request to move the case from the 134th District Court to the 101st, according to the correspondence, came in a letter hand-delivered to the judges involved in the suit last Thursday - two days after a 134th District Court judge ruled in favor of Mr. Vodicka in the lawsuit's opening hearing, awarding the lawyer the right to conduct his own inspection of the complex before it is destroyed by SMU.

Last year, SMU, which at the time owned 93% of the University Gardens complex, "moved that the property be declared obsolete and put up for sale," according to a university "fact sheet" about the deal. SMU maintains that the decision was based on engineering studies demonstrating that the condominiums were not suitable for habitation.

While Mr. Vodicka alleges that landstarved SMU moved to declare the condominiums obsolete in order to obtain land for the library at below market rate, a spokesman for the university, Brad Cheves, said yesterday that the lawsuit and the University Gardens deal have nothing to do with the effort to secure President Bush's library and museum.

Mr. Vodicka said he is seeking at least $30 million in punitive damages from SMU.

Although SMU's controller, John O'Connor, testified last Tuesday that "It is possible that one of the sites" for the library "would include part of that property," according to the Dallas Morning News, SMU maintains that it has been working to acquire the complex since 1998 - long before the school set its sights on the library.

The lawsuit is, however, spawning separate legal skirmishes for library contenders far removed from the University Gardens issue. Earlier this month Mr. Vodicka issued subpoenas on the other three finalists in the Texas-only library contest-Baylor University, in Waco; the University of Dallas, in Irving; and Texas Tech University, in Lubbock - in order to obtain their library proposals, threatening to shatter the secrecy surrounding the closely guarded documents.

Baylor last week filed a motion in their local court to quash Mr. Vodicka's subpoena, and a spokesman for the University of Dallas, Robert Gelecke, told the Sun yesterday that while no formal decision had been made, it was likely the school would follow Baylor's example. The West Texas Coalition, which is overseeing Texas Tech's bid, has agreed to provide Mr. Vodicka with proposal materials.

Mr. Cheves yesterday said that despite the metastasizing legal intrigue now involving all four library contenders, he did not anticipate that Mr. Vodicka's efforts would have any effect on the library contest, which is expected to end with a decision sometime before the end of next month.

"We have no concern," Mr. Cheves said. "Each of these schools seems to have appropriately identified that he is on a fishing trip, and that the issue is a red herring, and is separate from the presidential library process."

[RGV Pony]

Is anyone else amazed at the irony the Vodicka went to law school at SMU? Before looking it up, I would've guessed Baylor or TTech.

We should recruit him to the Mustang Club.

[EastStang]

He is apparently trying to try the case in the New York Press with a rag newspaper. I wonder if he's related to the publisher there or something.

[abezontar]

seriously, it does seem odd, that the Sun is the one coming out with all the articles, and not the Times, Washington Post, or even the DMN (a supposedly national paper).

I also have to wonder how anyone can take him seriously after the problems he has had that were posted on this site a few days ago.

[93Mustang]

It's not odd, it makes perfect sense that a tabloid is the leading buyer of this Plaintiff's PR releases. The sad thing is that the DMN hasn't investigated the facts and exposed this moron for being the fraud that he is.

[PK]

I sent a copy of the post here about Vodicka and where he really lives to the DMN. Lets see what they do with that.

[that's great raplh]

seriously, it does seem odd, that the Sun is the one coming out with all the articles.

they are anti-bush and anti-republican and will print anything they think will embarrass the administration

[couch 'em]

This sounds like the type of thing Bill O'Reilly would love to yell alot about......