| | Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- A lawsuit contends Indiana University
violated state law last month when trustees discussed the firing of
basketball coach Bob Knight without advance public notice.
The suit was filed in Bloomington on Monday by lawyers Roy
Graham and Gojko Kasich on behalf of 46 plaintiffs, most of them
Indiana alumni or basketball fans.
"It's a whole range of people who are pretty perturbed with the
way these things went down," Kasich said from his office in
Hebron, Ind.
Kasich said he has never had any contact with Knight. He added
that the intent of the suit is not necessarily to overturn the
firing.
"We realistically don't expect coach Knight to be sitting on
the IU bench," he said.
The lawsuit contends the meetings between university president
Myles Brand and separate groups of four trustees were public
meetings as defined by state law. As such, the university should
have given 48 hours notice, the complaint says.
Brand met with trustees Sept. 9 and announced the firing the
next day, saying Knight violated a "zero-tolerance" behavior
policy imposed in May. But the university has said the Sept. 9
meetings did not trigger the open meetings law because fewer than
half the nine trustees attended any one meeting with Brand.
"What we would hope is a court finds what was done was
improper, that it violated the spirit of the open door law and
consequently the open door law," Kasich said. "We would hope the
court issues an injunction that IU nor any other university, really
any other agency, can skirt the open door law by jumping through
these hoops."
The lawsuit asks Judge Elizabeth Mann to declare the Sept. 9
meetings in violation of Indiana's open door law.
"We would anticipate they would call a public meeting for the
purpose of terminating coach Knight, and that's their prerogative.
But at least do it in public. At least have enough guts to stand
up," Kasich said.
Graham called it an issue of fairness.
"The issue is not what Bobby Knight did or didn't do," he
said.
University counsel Dorothy Frapwell told The Bloomington
Herald-Times, "We did what we did. ... People were in town and
Myles was sharing information. We did not want a quorum there. That
is true."
Frapwell also said a 1987 act by the board of trustees gives the
university president sole authority to fire Knight. Knight's
attorney, Russell Yates, said in September that Brand's firing of
Knight was in accord with the rules established in the coach's
contract.
Hoosier State Press Association attorney Steve Key said Monday
the university violated the spirit of the law. He said holding
back-to-back meetings with small groups of public officials to
avoid the open meetings law is a common problem in Indiana.
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