Third-year College student Adam Boyd will go to trial Saturday after the Honor Committee turned down a motion to dismiss Boyd's case early yesterday morning.
Committee Chairman Christopher Smith, the trial chair for Boyd's case, announced the decision around 1 a.m. yesterday after a lengthy deliberation that followed a two-hour pretrial hearing.
"The standard for granting a motion to dismiss is on the basis of fundamental fairness -- simply whether the student can have a fair trial or not," Smith said. "Dismissal is not a judgment on the veracity of the facts, it is simply a judgment that the student can have a fair trial."
During the hearing, Boyd's counsel, third-year Law student Seth Wood, read a motion laying out the grounds for dismissal of the case based on several points, all stemming from alleged inadequacies and miscarriages of the investigation process.
Boyd claims the investigators failed to contact key witnesses, did not ask witnesses they interviewed important questions and failed to collect all the evidence pertinent to the case.
The motion made reference to several specific grievances. Though most consisted of evidence already released to the public, Boyd also submitted an interview with the Astronomy department secretary who claimed she never was contacted by anyone from the Committee.
This was presented in connection with an interview of the Committee investigators in which they told Boyd they contacted the secretary and she had nothing important to say.
Boyd's counsel alleged that such evidence showed either gross negligence or dishonesty, both of which he claimed made the case fundamentally unfair.
Boyd said after the hearing that the possible dishonesty on the part of one of the investigators was a central point in his defense.
"We've presented information on the grounds that there was a lie put into the [investigation records] -- that one of the investigators had interviewed the department secretary," Boyd said. "Any case built on a lie cannot proceed to trial."
Boyd also said he was "disappointed by the results of the hearing," and that the evidence he presented as grounds for dismissal "could not have been any stronger."
To get a trial dismissed, an accused student must show that he or she cannot receive a fair trial. Boyd's motion contends that the alleged investigatory incompetence led to a failure to collect evidence that no longer can be collected due to the passage of time. Therefore, he claimed he could not receive a fair trial, as evidence necessary to the trial is irretrievably lost.
By turning down the motion to dismiss, the Committee ruled that the investigatory conduct, whatever it might have been, does not prevent Boyd from getting a fair trial. Smith explained that in such cases, the evidence presented in such a motion is often used at trial.
"The type of facts brought up in motions to dismiss are often presented at trial and are relevant to reasonable doubt," Smith said, though he was unable to comment on case specifics.
Boyd said he felt Smith had refused to dismiss the trial for reasons not related tot he validity of the defense's argument.
"Chris Smith passed along the trail as an appeasement to the system," he said.
Though the pretrial was closed, observers allowed entry by Boyd were permitted to attend. Seventeen students sat in on the proceedings. Some were friends of the accused, others were students who camped out for tickets to Saturday's open trial to whom Boyd offered admission to the pretrial.
The trial now will proceed as planned at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the trial room on the fourth floor of Newcomb Hall.
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