University Judiciary Committee Law School Rep. Brian Stansbury resigned from his position last night in closed session. He decided to step down before Committee members were able to initiate what would have been his second impeachment trial in less than four weeks.
According to Committee policy, four unexcused absences from meetings are sufficient grounds to impeach a representative.
Vice Chairman for Trials Tillman Breckenridge enacted the policy at the start of the Committee's term in April.
Stansbury had been impeached by the Committee once before for amassing too many unexcused absences. According to Committee records, Stansbury accumulated four unexcused absences and two excused absences before last Sunday. He has attended four Committee meetings total, including last night's.
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After his last impeachment trial, in which he escaped being removed from office by one vote, Stansbury said he would resign if another absence was deemed unexcused.
Breckenridge, supported by the UJC Executive Committee, decided last week not to excuse Stansbury's absence from last Sunday's Committee meeting, making it his fifth unexcused absence. Stansbury said last night that he thought the absence was excused.
He appealed to the Executive Committee late last week and to the Committee last night to excuse last Sunday's absence. But when the Committee passed a petition last night to proceed with impeachment proceedings, he decided to step down.
Stansbury said he had asked the Executive Committee to postpone the impeachment proceedings for a week to prepare his defense. The Executive Committee denied his request "because they wanted to put my impeachment on a fast track through the Committee. I don't think I was afforded ample opportunity to defend myself," he said.
"It surprised me that the Committee can spend five weeks discussing fine restrictions but can't spend more than one week discussing whether" to remove a Committee member, he added.
Breckenridge said the Committee could have voted to grant Stansbury a continuance in the matter but Stansbury resigned before that happened.
Stansbury said the Executive Committee made it clear that it would not support a continuance, and that he felt pursuing a continuance was not worthwhile after the petition to impeach had been signed.
Last night Stansbury said Breckenridge previously had excused last Sunday's absence because it was job-related. Stansbury said he was attending a post-Foxfield Races party with a Texas-based law firm that day.
Breckenridge would not comment on why he later decided not to excuse the absence, but said the Executive Committee supported his decision because Stansbury failed to reconcile questions the Committee had regarding the circumstances of the absence.
Committee Chairwoman Lissa Percopo said she does not think what happened last night was a bad thing.
"If one person can't keep up with their responsibilities, the lesser of two evils is to replace them," Percopo said.
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