Patterico's Pontifications

10/13/2007

Another Duke Lacrosse Lawsuit

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 8:18 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Instapundit notes that former Duke University lacrosse coach Mike Pressler has sued Duke claiming it violated the terms of their confidential settlement entered into when he resigned. As a result, Pressler wants to void his settlement with Duke and bring a suit for wrongful termination:

“The Herald-Sun of Durham reported Friday on its Web site that his lawsuit alleges the university broke the terms of the confidential settlement when university senior vice president John Burness made disparaging comments about him.

The newspaper reported that the lawsuit asks the state court to void the settlement and hold a trial on Pressler’s claim of wrongful termination.”

Duke’s general counsel expressed disappointment and said Duke would “insist on honoring our existing agreement.”

(All quotes are from the original report here.)

— DRJ

15 Responses to “Another Duke Lacrosse Lawsuit”

  1. I hope someone goes after the little stalins on the faculty at Duke. They were an A+ disgrace!

    The Sanity Inspector (1891ef)

  2. Duke absolutely was right to fire this coach. These players were victims of a horrible rush to judgment, but they were terrible representatives of Duke nonetheless. Having underage drinking, racial issues with their strippers, etc etc. This team was led irresponsibly, and if Duke has a problem with that, it’s normal to fire the coach. It’s his job to run that team, even off campus.

    Did duke professors rush to convict innocent men of rape? yeah. And Duke should be ashamed of that. But they still had the right to fire this coach. I’d fire this coach.

    Dustin (9e390b)

  3. Thank God for this coach’s integrity in sticking up for the character of his players when this was unpopular.

    I can’t give an opinion on whether Duke’s speaking in derogatory terms of coach Pressler after it signed a confidentiality agreement was a sufficient breach to warrant opening up a lawsuit without reading the entire agreement they signed.

    But Pressler may feel he has no other way to defend his reputation and interests because, presumably, he is also bound by a confidentiality agreement and cannot respond in kind. Hence the lawsuit and request for damages.

    I lean toward Pressler’s position.

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  4. So the coach should go, but the faculty has tenure.
    Faculty often incites students to protest and break the law. Occupy administrative offices etc. They incite students to disrupt speeches given by conservatives… but geez a guy on a team says the n word to a nutcase but legally hired stripper at an off campus private event and the coach gets forced to resign?
    Seems like a type of double standard to me.
    Duke should have let about 88 people other people go too…

    SteveG (4e16fc)

  5. Just testing… Have I now been banned from the site? I couldn’t post comments on another thread.

    Oregonian (ebcd2f)

  6. Ah… It seems to work here. The other thread must be closed or something. Carry on.

    Oregonian (ebcd2f)

  7. Oregonian, if you were trying to post a comment with a link you might try it without the link. I’ve been blocked several times because of links.

    DRJ (74c23b)

  8. I just rescued a comment by Oregonian from the spam filter.

    This happens so often that I have made a habit of going in and digging out the comments. As a general rule, if your comment gets eaten, chances are I’ll rescue it within a few hours.

    Patterico (bad89b)

  9. There can’t be too many law suits for me. I’d like to see them sue CNN and MSNBC for their insanely biased coverage. ESPN may have been the worst. Tony Kornheiser and Duke grad John Feinstein was the worst imaginable. Of course nobody can get lower that the whale shit eating Nancy Grace.

    Howard Veit (4ba8d4)

  10. Dustin, if we followed your rule without playing favorites and fired every coach where a team had members that hired strippers, engaged in under-aged drinking and were involved in racial incidents then about half of the NCAA men’s coaches would get fired every year. Since I don’t see this great annual winnowing of the coaches and certainly not from Duke, I don’t think this rule is being followed fairly.

    Anyone who doesn’t think that Duke’s basketball players get away with this stuff all the time is naive.

    Doc Rampage (ebfd7a)

  11. The Admissions department must be working overtime to future applicants. I have a sense that many parents will look at other colleges. The College President will go ,most of the” Duke 88″ will stay and Duke will tumble in the rankings of Colleges.

    mike191 (c4e609)

  12. Here’s my perspective from my recent classes on contract and such…

    I would suspect that instead of vacating the contract, the court will force compliance on the part of Duke (assuming their failure to comply is strickly or mostly monitary). However, if remarks by Duke employees were slanderous or libelous, the guy might actually have a case to void it.

    In which case, Duke is screwed.

    This is why you muzzle the morons on staff after an agreement is made to keep quite…

    Scott Jacobs (a1de9d)

  13. Duke to mortals:
    Do as we say, Not as we do!

    And, BTW, if a coach is responsible for the students he teaches, aren’t the other faculty responsible for the actions of their students outside of class? Goose/Gander!

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  14. Dustin,

    I can only presume you haven’t been following this case. Exactly what racial issues where there? The slur hurled by one of the players after Kim Robertson used a racial slur against the players? And please, what college/university/high school doesn’t have an issue with underage drinking and why are the lacrosse players any worse? Exactly what evidence do you have other than your own biases?

    This team was led irresponsibly….

    It was one of the topped ranked teams in the country at the time of the incident. I’d say the coach was doing a good job.

    …and if Duke has a problem with that, it’s normal to fire the coach.

    Not if they aren’t firing him for failing to uphold his contract.

    This is why you muzzle the morons on staff after an agreement is made to keep quite…

    In my reading of comments and statements attributed to Burness, he has always had a habit of running off at the mouth.

    Steve Verdon (4c0bd6)

  15. The duke lacrosse false rape is symbolic of an anti-male hysteria that is now foaming at the mouth to convict innocent men/fathers/boys!!!
    goto..mensactivism.org
    goto..menscollegeactivist.org

    college activist.org (cc7d0f)


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