Priscilla Slade, effectively fired from Texas Southern University for inappropriate use of university funds, is suing the university in an effort to squeeze even more money from the institution.
The Chronicle‘s Matthew Tresaugue has the details:
Priscilla Slade sued Texas Southern University’s governing board Friday, claiming the regents failed to provide a mandatory hearing before effectively firing her as president.
The lawsuit, filed in state district court, accuses the regents of making plans to hire a new president while Slade still holds the job. Attorney Ron Franklin, who represents Slade, said he hopes to win unspecified monetary damages.
[snip]
“Her contract requires them to give due process and a hearing, and they have ignored it,” Franklin said.
The board [of regents] inquiry, conducted by the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, found that Slade and former Chief Financial Officer Quintin Wiggins failed to follow university policies and state laws, including “long-accepted principles prohibiting the use of public money for private gain,” to buy more than $260,000 in furniture, landscaping and security equipment for her house.
A recent university audit also found that Slade spent nearly $650,000 over the past seven years on personal purchases not allowed under her contract.
In the lawsuit, Franklin claimed the audit “was selective, incomplete, misleading and clearly calculated to create an impression of wrongdoing on Dr. Slade’s part.”
Dr. Slade seems to have done a fine job creating that “impression” all on her own.
Slade’s attorney gave KTRK-13 a nice quote, in reference to the hearing that TSU must give Slade before her firing is official:
“If I know before a trial begins that the jurors have already decided everything and are trying to decide whether or not to cut off her head or hang her, why would I go through that scam,” said Franklin.
It’s quite an upside-down world in which a university official can put someone convicted of bouncing checks in charge of finances, (allegedly) misuse nearly $1 million, AND claim to be a victim of the equivalent of a hanging when terminated for cause!
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Priscilla Slade.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
