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2, The Clackamas Print Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 LAWSUIT: Martinez v. Darris Continued from Page 1 According to the lawsuit, filed Oct. 11 in Clackamas County Circuit Court, it all started in 2009 when Martinez and Darris were part o f the faculty bar gaining team for CCC. In December, ! Dean Darris was not present at the bargaining team meeting. The suits states that Martinez was overheard talking about her lack o f confidence in Darris to “refrain from speaking out during the negotiations.” T hat information was then relayed to Darris himself, and at the next bargaining meeting Darris request ed to talk about Martinez’s comment. Martinez did not want to go into further detail since it was her personal opinion. • Darris has had a colorful past , with the college. He reported the college for violating the election laws for the May bond election. H e also had a physical confrontation with a student in February o f 2008. From January 2010 Martinez claims that both Darrises began making oral and written false and defamatory accusa tions against her. According to the lawsuit, the Darrises made Martinez’s personal opinions public, “casting them fin a false light intended to portray her statements as malicious, false and defamatory attacks on Darris personally and professionally.” T he suit states that the Darrises sent emails to people claiming that Martinez had made a violent, vicious, and malicious attack on Darris defaming his personal character and professional reputation and intentionally causing him iiaaft(M¿ iBnal«<suw6-»and d«r«w ij- They-«doe claim that Martinez “conducted a smear campaign against Marshall Dean Darris in her capacity as a counselor by telling students that Darris was unprofessional, homophobic, a bigot and a pedophile seducing his young female students.” Emails then followed from Tara Darris .to faculty, administration, stu dents and then republished to the school and the community. The emails claimed that since Martinez is a Mexican- American US citizen, she has “gotten by as a diversity hire her entire life,” she has been playing the victim card as an “oppressed” Latino woman, “that just because she uses a fake accent when she says ‘Latino’ does not make her ethnic” T he lawsuit continues to say that “die is a psychopath and incapable o f shame; that many working class students have been defrauded by being advised to take her ‘stupid’ classes; that she is a pseudo intellectual Latino, and that she is a liar.” Martínez also claims that Dean Darris enlisted fellow faculty members, stu dents in his classes and veterans that he counseled asking them to support him by speaking in his favor, and by sending emails, and letters to faculty, administra tors, students and Martinez. It Continúes to say that they knew that Martinez would be subjected to severe emotional distress or that such distress was substantially certain to result from their conduct. Martinez continues to claim that they were successful by dam The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased and professional , manner. Content published in The Print is not screened or subject to censorship. 19600 Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 newsed@clackamas. edu News College gets a lump of Cole By Nora Goodman The C lackam as P rin t aging her reputation. She states that she suffered severe physical and emotional distress including loss o f hair, humilia tion, stress, depression, unproductivity at work and fear o f people w ho could be incited to violence by the defendants’ “false and misleading statements about her.” W hen asked about the lawsuit Martinez stated to contact her lawyer Tm d that she was advised to not talk about it. W hen her lawyer, Tait, was con tacted, he would not send over the evidence o f emails. “This is pending litigation and I don’t feel comfortable to talk to anybody at this stage,” he said. “There has been enough damage by what things that have been published about this matter already.” T he idea o f transferring transcripts from one college to another is often simple but in the case o f Brandon Earl Cole, a former student at Clackamas Community College, this was not a simple transaction. Cole filed a lawsuit against C C C on D ec 29 in the amount o f $10,000 at Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon City. Cole’s claim is that C C C willingly violated the col lege academic policy by not transferring his “C ” average or better grades to Portland Community College. According to Kandie Starr, an enroll ment services specialist with the admissions and records department at CCC, there is a simple process. The process is done by mail and usually takes 72 business hours from the date the request was received. The transcript may be delayed if the students transcript is incomplete or there is a “hold” on the amount due to unm et obligations such as outstanding balance owing, fines or lost books to the college. Otherwise college courses usually transfer easily. College courses usually transfer as one o f three types o f credits: elective credits, general education credits or major field o f study credits. W hen a student is ready to have their classes and credits transferred to a four year school or a different community college, he needs to request an official tran script to be sent to the college or university they will be attending. Courtney Wilton, vice president o f col lege services is confused about the case. “We simply don’t understand the reason for Brandon’s small claims action. I’ve called him twice. Each time I spoke to him directly and each time he promised to call me ■ back He never did. T he college has denied his claim and requested a hearing,” stated W ilton in an email. W ilton will represent C C C since the case will appear in small claims court, which doesn’t require an attorney. T he case should go to court within 30 days. Cole declined to comment. u ... w e believe i t is baseless, frivolous, a n d an outrage against Am erican jurisprudence a n d the courts o f la w o f O reg o n .” Tara Darris Defendant in lawsuit W hen asked at what stage the lawsuit is in, he said, “They (Darrises) have yet to make an appearance,” Tait stated. W hen asked abflut the lawsuit the' Darrises stated in a email, “W e have no comment on it, other than that we believe it is baseless, frivolous, and an outrage against American jurisprudence and the courts o f law or Oregon. In fact, it is our contention that this lawsuit was a strategic lawsuit to financially exhaust us so that We could not afford to seek legal remedy for what we believe to be civil rights violations committed against Dr. Darris by agents o f CCC.” In response, Courtney Wilton, vice president o f college services, said, “T hat is absolutely not correct. We have no involvement in this whatsoever.” He continued to say, “It is not fair for the college (for Darris) to make statements like that when it is absolutely not true.” W hen asked what the college tried to do to resolve the issue between Martinez and Dairis, W ilton said he was unable to go into detail since it is a personnel issue. “It’s frustrating and I would love to give you everything but I can’t.” W hen asked how he thought the lawsuit makes the college look he said, “I don’t see it having a big impact on out image; I see it as a lawsuit. It is not against the college; it’s a lawsuit between two indi viduals. I really don’t see us really being involved in this.” | Tait said he expects the lawsuit to be closed in a year. THE BEST STUDY BUDDY YOU'LL EVER HAVE. PIZZA ON THE LARGE 1-TOPPING PIZZA No coupon required, just valid College Student ID. [528] Offer expires 5/31/2012 DINE-IN/DELIVERY/CARRYOUT 1 27 7 Molalla Ave. 5 0 3 -2 9 2 -2 2 2 2 ©2012 « a s M Editors Editor-in-Chief: Brian Baldwin Copy Editor: Katherine Suydam News Editor: Patty Salazar Associate News Editor: Joshua Dillen Arts&Culture Editor: Isaac Soper Sports Editor: John William Howard Photo Editor: Hillary Cole Web Editor: Anna Axelson Design Editor: James Duncan Ad Manager: Brad Heineke Writers & Photographers Nora Goodman Hiroaki Hayashi Mark Sunderland Chris Taylor Adviser: Melissa Jones 503-594-6266 Production Assistants Christian Adams' Mollie Berry Breanna Craine . Tyler Eheler Joey Fisher Jaronte Goldsby Telicia Goodman Hicham Kerkour Ellen Niles Darla Nguyen Emily Rask Audra Slanina Evon Trembly Sharon Wetmore cuchamos Contact Information chiefed@clackamas.edu copyed@clackamas.edu newsed@clackamas.edu- aced@clackamas.edu sportsed@clackamas.edu photoed@ciackamas.edu admgr@clackamas.edu webeditor@clackamas.edu
