OXFORD - A former Mississippi Valley State University student whose on-campus apartment was destroyed in an April 1999 fire said Thursday that she never complained to the university's president, Dr. Lester C. Newman, about Troy Brown's handling of the incident.
Tawanna Tarvin testified in U.S. District Court that she had no complaints about Brown during her time at Valley.
"I considered him to be a wonderful person, very down to earth, a very respectable person," she said during the third day of trial in Brown's wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
Newman earlier in the week testified that "the girl and her mother came to my house when I was not there" to complain that Brown had not properly provided for Tarvin and her toddler son the night of the fire.
Newman has claimed that Brown's lack of response as dean of students to the fire ultimately led to his firing, not Brown's involvement in the 1999 lieutenant governor's race.
But Tarvin's mother, Shirley Adams, who also testified Thursday, said she came to campus the day of the fire, picked up her daughter and granddaughter and went straight back to their home in Monroe, La.
Adams said she has never been to Newman's house and doesn't know where it is. She met him once, at her daughter's graduation in May 2001, according to her testimony.
"I had no complaints about the baby not being properly taken care of after the fire," Adams said.
Brown is suing Newman and Dr. Kevin Rolle, Valley's former vice president for student affairs, for violating his First Amendment right of freedom of expression to run for office. In the lawsuit, Brown claims he was unjustly fired from the $55,000-a-year post because he refused to withdraw from the 1999 lieutenant governor's race after Newman urged him to do so. In a restructuring of the Valley administration, Rolle had taken over the top spot in student affairs from Brown.
The defendants, who began their side of the case Thursday afternoon, say Brown was fired because of poor job performance. Witnesses for the defendants detailed two issues they say Brown failed to resolve: the purchase of new fitness equipment for a student recreation center and complaints about student disciplinary procedures.
The last straw, the defendants have said, was when Brown didn't appear at the scene of the fire in the wee morning hours of April 25, 1999. Retired MVSU Police Captain Bennie Trotter, though, has testified that he telephoned Brown after the fire was out and that Brown did all he could by advising that Tarvin and her son be placed in a dorm room for the night.
Tarvin, who attended Valley on a music scholarship, opted to stay at a neighbor's apartment. "So we were not out in the cold or anything," she said. "We had a place to stay."
The one complaint that her mother said she did make following the fire was to the administration at large for not having smoke detectors in the apartment. "Then, the fire would not have gone so far," Adams said.
Dr. Roy C. Hudson, Valley's vice president for university relations, testified that school officials were slow to learn about the fire, which happened on a Sunday. He said it was brought to his attention by Newman, who called an executive-staff meeting that Monday to learn who knew about the fire first.
The findings at this meeting are under contention. Newman claims Brown lied there by saying three times he knew nothing about a fire until Trotter prodded the truth out of him.
Brown, though, explains that the victims were foremost in his mind and that he didn't immediately connect them to a "major fire." The contradictory statements, he said, were the result of a lapse in his thought process, which his attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, has argued is hampered by a learning disability. Brown is dyslexic.
Brown testified that Trotter served only to remind him of the victims. "I don't know why God gave me a brain so I couldn't make that particular connection, but when he alluded to the fact, I remembered it," Brown said.
But Hudson in his recollection of the meeting recalled that Brown did much more stuttering and backtracking.
"Trotter looked Brown in the face and said, 'I told you about the fire,'" Hudson recalled. "Troy hesitated and looked around at all of us and said, 'Oh, oh. What fire? Oh, oh, you mean that fire.'"
Hudson also disputed earlier testimony from Dr. Walter Roberts, president of the MVSU Foundation. Roberts had said that the alumni fund-raising organization could not get Newman to account for money in the university's Capital Campaign Fund.
Hudson testified that he understood Roberts had alleged that he, Newman and Andre Curry, Valley's vice president for fiscal affairs, had taken money from the fund, which includes money the university president raises. That accusation, Hudson said, prompted him and his colleagues, along with foundation members, to conduct a thorough investigation of the fund.
"When all the issues were ferreted out, it was determined that nothing was missing," he said.
Hudson dismissed the allegations as "the overzealousness of Dr. Roberts to try to get out something on Dr. Newman and me in front of the other foundation board members."
Hudson also said that Newman was reluctant to discuss the Capital Campaign Fund at the time only because Roberts made a "desperate" request that $200,000 from the fund be invested with First Tennessee, a financial corporation. Eventually, $100,000 from the fund was invested with the corporation in order to satisfy Roberts, Hudson said.
Roberts told the court Wednesday that he had been told by Rolle that the university was being investigated for missing funds, but Roberts did not specify the alleged theft involved the Capital Campaign Fund. He also testified that at a January 2003 fraternity conference in Atlanta, Rolle told him Newman had "railroaded" Brown from his job.
But defense witness Tim Rush, who said he was around Rolle and Roberts when they were talking then, claimed he couldn't recall their even discussing Brown or using the word "railroaded."
Roberts had said also that another witness, then College Board member James Luvene, had advised Brown to pull out of the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. The race was eventually won by Amy Tuck.
That discussion never happened, according to Luvene, who worked at Rust College when Brown was a student there. Luvene testified Thursday that he met at separate times with Brown, Newman, Roberts and retired Rust College President William McMillan to ameliorate Brown's employment problems.
Luvene, after saying he and Newman never discussed Brown's political aspirations, mentioned that Newman had said, after terminating Brown, that he wanted him back at the university in some other capacity.
"He mentioned he felt like because Troy had a relationship with Bill Cosby and had received national attention and even because he was running for office, that Troy was a good thing for Valley, and he could bring a lot of good publicity to the school," Luvene said.
Waide, during cross-examination, asked Luvene, "Did it ever occur to you that it might be a problem for a university official to run for office, say, against the candidate who would probably become lieutenant governor?"
"No," Luvene replied.
