Despite a $1.05 million lawsuit alleging the honor system does not ensure due process, Committee members assert that the system is sound and will stand up to the allegations in court.
Committee Chairman Hunter Ferguson said he believes the honor system will withstand pressure in court as long as honor trial participants follow the guidelines set forth in the honor constitution and bylaws.
"So long as due process standards are met, [the Honor Committee] is unassailable," Ferguson said.
Vice Chairman for Services Cordell Faulk said the Committee's case procedures and rights for the accused surpass any requirements set by the courts.
"We go out of our way to give due process," Faulk said.
But in November 1998, Jonathan Cobb, who was found guilty of cheating on an Introduction to Statistical Analysis exam, sued the University and others involved in the case for $1.05 million, arguing he did not receive due process. Cobb took the test in the spring of 1997 and answered only two of 10 questions.
This past weekend the lawyers and parties involved met for depositions. They interviewed Board of Visitors member Terence P. Ross, former Vice Chairwoman for Trials April Fearnly, William W. Harmon, vice president for student affairs, and Cobb. The case will be tried March 6 and 7.
Annette Cobb, Jonathan Cobb's mother and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the Honor Committee did not adjudicate the case in a timely manner and therefore compromised her son's ability to defend himself. In his appeal to the Honor Committee, Cobb's counsel argued that "the long delay from the filing of the case and the date that Jonathan was officially informed of the issue violates Jonathan's right to a timely trial. Jonathan had not focused on the test and no longer was able to recall sharply the answers for his explanation."
Annette Cobb said other procedural issues were not followed as well.
"John was never assigned an advisor," she said. "Procedural process was not followed."
She also pointed out similarities to other cases filed against the University in the past.
In 1997, Dina M. Padula was found guilty of copying another student's paper and filed a lawsuit demanding a retrial. The Committee granted a retrial without any knowledge of the lawsuit.
Also, during the spring of 1993, an honor jury found then-University student Christopher Leggett guilty of cheating and forced him to leave the University. Leggett returned in August 1994 with the backing of Williams & Connolly, a high-priced Washington, D.C., law firm. Under the threat of a lawsuit, the University's Board forced the Honor Committee executive committee to grant a new trial. He was found not guilty.
More recently, Richard W. Smith filed a lawsuit against the University July 21, also claiming that his due process rights were violated during University Judiciary Committee disciplinary proceedings against him. The suit does not seek damages against the students.
Casteen suspended Smith for two years for his involvement in the Nov. 21, 1997 assault on then first-year College student Alexander "Sandy" Kory above the Ruffner Footbridge on Newcomb Road.
"The Smith case is fighting the same thing in front of the same judge," Annette Cobb said. "The inequity I see is that we are just average people."
Casteen said he could not comment on the current case, but said he did not think the lawsuits would threaten student-run judicial and honor proceedings as long as the University wins the pending cases.
"The courts will determine the answer to [that] question," he said.
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