Last May, Stephanie Garrison walked the Lawn during final exercises with the Class of 2006. But unlike the rest of her classmates, Garrison did not receive her diploma, even though she completed coursework for an undergraduate degree in politics.
In an honor trial four months earlier, Garrison was convicted of lying--and her diploma was withheld. Garrison filed an appeal in February, and May 5--three weeks before graduation--she found out she was granted a new trial.
The new trial is scheduled for this Sunday and will be open to the public.
For Garrison, Sunday's re-trial is about justice and closure; justice for what she says was an unconstitutional handling of her case fraught with procedural errors, and closure for the months she has spent with her "life on pause."
"It's hard--Charlottesville is not a pleasant place in my mind," said Garrison, a former University Guide. "It shouldn't be that way, and it is. You feel betrayed. You feel like the system you stood up for, you believed in, you loved, left you in the cold. It's been a long, long summer, spring, winter, year."
Her story began well before her Jan. 22 honor conviction.
On March 18, 2005 Garrison and a friend took a taxi home after a party. When they arrived at Dunglison dormitory, where Garrison was a senior resident, the taxi driver accused Garrison and her friend of vomiting in the back seat and demanded a "clean-up fee." Garrison and her friend denied responsibility by pointing out that the vomit stain on the seat was dry. When they refused to pay the fee, the driver called the police.
Garrison's friend fled while Garrison remained at the cab. The officer who arrived confirmed they were not responsible for the vomit, but then asked if Garrison had been drinking and if she was 21 years old. Garrison told him she had been drinking but was not 21. She was then arrested and charged with possession of alcohol by a minor.
According to Garrison, even though she was drinking off Grounds, the case fell under the jurisdiction of the University Judiciary Committee because the incident was handled by the University Police.
The case went to a UJC hearing panel May 4, 2005. Garrison was assigned three sanctions: a visit to the Counseling and Psychological Services office, participation in a class on alcohol and substance abuse called "Choices," and 12 ride-along hours with SafeRide. The sanctions were to be completed by Oct. 4, 2005.
Garrison went to the CAPS office later in May. She was told F. Richard Heisterman, the doctor with whom she was supposed to meet, was on vacation, so she spoke with another CAPS employee.
To complete the second sanction, Garrison attended four classes in July with the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, a state-run program with an office in Charlottesville, instead of Choices, a University program.
As a member of Resident Staff, Garrison said she was well-versed in the alcohol education programs available both at the University and in Charlottesville. She said she thought VASAP, a 12-hour program, was an acceptable substitute for Choices, a five-hour program, because it was more intense and in-depth.
"When I took that [VASAP] class, I saw it as going above and beyond what I was being asked to do," Garrison said.
As for the third sanction, Garrison claims she contacted SafeRide in May and scheduled her shifts for Sept. 1 and 8. When she later called to confirm the dates, however, she was told they had been double-booked. Garrison claims she called SafeRide again Sept. 9 to reschedule and was informed that the first available appointments were Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, both of which were after her Oct. 4 deadline.
"I did contact SafeRide in May, and I scheduled them for the first two Thursdays in September," Garrison said. "So it wasn't like I just waited until the last minute for it."
Garrison said she did not turn in the sanction form Oct. 4 because she had not yet completed her SafeRide hours. Oct. 19, she received a letter from UJC Vice Chair for Sanctions Gavin Reddick threatening suspension if she did not complete and return the form immediately. Garrison returned the form Oct. 21.
"I signed it thinking, I've scheduled it to be done, it's the last leg of it, it will be fine--my other two sanctions are completed--here we go," she said.
Oct. 24, Garrison received an e-mail from Reddick saying she had not completed her SafeRide hours, her CAPS visit fell short of fulfilling her sanction and the VASAP classes were not the ones that she was sanctioned to complete.
Garrison said she went to Reddick the next day to explain her situation, and he told her he would have to meet with the UJC executive board to discuss the matter.
Oct. 28, Garrison was informed that Reddick had initiated an honor case against her for lying about completing her sanctions.
Reddick, a Graduate Arts & Sciences student, declined to comment on any specifics regarding Garrison's case but agreed to talk generally about the UJC sanctioning process.
He declined to say whether VASAP is considered an acceptable substitute for Choices but said, "Both are fairly common, and we know that both exist."
Garrison said she did not have a UJC educator to guide her through the sanctioning process and consequently, several misunderstandings arose.
Reddick said every student is assigned a post-trial educator and that educators do not have any role in the sanctioning process.
This year's UJC handbook lists serving as a 'sanction advisor' for a student who is found guilty and given a sanction as one of the post-trial duties of the educator.
"The educator meets with students after a trial to compile essentially a survey of what their experience was with the process," Reddick said. "And they can't always contact the student, and the student doesn't necessarily want to talk to the educator in every case."
Fourth-year College student Ezana Teferra was the UJC educator initially assigned to Garrison's case. He claimed in an interview he left a message on Garrison's cell phone but she never called him back.
Garrison said she had no record of Teferra's call but acknowledged it is possible she never got his message.
Teferra took the Fall 2005 semester off and said he did not hear anything further about the case.
"She was never assigned an educator to explain the process to her," he said. "Because after I took the semester off, they never replaced me, I guess. So it's kind of true that, you know, she never had one."
Garrison said she was unsure how to complete the sanction form, which she called "incredibly vague," especially in terms of the number of signatures required. Despite the fact that she had been a UJC counselor, Garrison said she was unfamiliar with the sanctioning process, as counselors are only involved in the trial itself, whereas educators handle post-trial matters.
"The first sanction form that I had ever seen was my own," Garrison said.
Reddick said the sanction form was updated last spring but said the previous version was "fairly simple" and used by many students. He said the form was updated along with the rest of the UJC Web site in the spring and declined to say whether Garrison's case was the impetus for the latest revision.
"It's not an uncommon thing for the sanction form to be changed," he said, adding that it "might be the fourth version" of the form he has seen in the five years he has been a UJC member.
Reddick said students can consult their educator during the sanctioning process, but any questions are forwarded to him as the vice chair for sanctions.
Garrison said it was never her intent to "do anything but complete my required sanctions." She now acknowledges she should have gone to Reddick beforehand to avoid any potential misunderstandings.
"I knew a little bit, and I thought that was enough," she said. "I wish I would have asked 1,000 questions."
Garrison's honor trial was originally scheduled for Jan. 22, 2006.
Tomorrow: The case goes to Honor.
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