Pro-choice professor files defamation suit against U. Nebraska
By Jill Zeman - Daily Nebraskan U. Nebraska
(U-WIRE) LINCOLN, Neb., January 19, 2001 -- Claiming the University of
Nebraska damaged him emotionally and professionally, Dr. LeRoy Carhart
filed a lawsuit Wednesday against top university leaders.
Carhart was released from the volunteer faculty at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center in December and said in his lawsuit that his
dismissal was a political act.
Carhart, who provided the university with aborted fetal tissue for
research on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, has been in the
spotlight over the past year.
The doctor's involvement in aborted fetal tissue research sparkeda
statewide controversy among anti-abortion rights activists, who demanded
Carhart be removed from UNMC's faculty.
Last July, Carhart successfully challenged Nebraska's ban on
partial-birth abortions in the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The unrelenting pressure from anti-choice activists and the Nebraska
Republican Party makes it clear that my termination was a political
act," Carhart said in a statement.
Dennis Smith, NU president; Lee Jones, executive vice president and
provost; Harold Maurer, UNMC chancellor and James Armitage, dean of the
UNMC College of Medicine were listed as defendants in the suit.
Members of the NU Board of Regents, including former regents Rosemary
Skrupa of Omaha and Robert Allen of Hastings, are also listed in the
lawsuit.
"Simply put, this case is about freedom -- the cherished, long fought
over freedom of all United States citizens to exercise their
constitutional rights and not be retaliated against and lose their job,"
said Sherrie Russell-Brown, attorney at the New York-based Center for
Reproductive Law and Policy, which represents Carhart.
On Sept. 12, Carhart received a letter from UNMC terminating
hisvolunteer faculty appointment, which he has held since October 1997.
The lawsuit says because of the university's actions, Carhart
hassuffered and will continue to suffer professional, academic and
personal injuries including: - Defamation. - Loss of reputation and
professional esteem. - Injury to Carhart's career. - Chilling of his
constitutional and academic rights. - Deprivation of professional and
scholarly opportunities.
Carhart is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, with the amount
to be determined at the trial.
Richard Wood, NU legal counsel, said the university denies all
ofCarhart's charges.
The reason Carhart was asked to leave, Wood said, was because he was
volunteering in a department in which he didn't specialize.
Carhart, an abortion doctor, volunteered in the department of
Microbiology and Pathology.
"The university realized there was a lot of other public issues
affecting Dr. Carhart and the university," Wood said.
"But the university's action was because of (the College of Medicine's
volunteer) policy, not because of his exercise of free speech or the
nature of his profession."
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