The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office served a subpoena to two University officials Tuesday afternoon, demanding they hand over a list of names and résumés of applicants for the University’s search to fill the position of LSU president.
Robert Rasmussen, assistant vice president of System Relations, and James Marchand, assistant to LSU’s General Counsel, told the sheriff’s deputy who served the court order that the University does not possess the records he was looking for.
Rasmussen told the deputy the only copies of the records he’s aware of are held by the consulting firm R. William Funk and Associates in Dallas, which assisted the University in conducting the search for presidential candidates.
The subpoena was handed down by District Judge Janice Clark on Tuesday morning after a hearing in which she chastised the University for failing to comply with her April 30 order to turn over the documents.
“The power, authority and dignity of this court continues to be frustrated,” Clark said.
She said in the hearing that the court would authorize the sheriff’s office to obtain the records whether they are located in Louisiana or not, but the subpoena issued Tuesday only allows the sheriff to seize them from LSU’s campus.
Mary Erlingson, who represented the sheriff’s office at the hearing, said the sheriff would execute any orders Clark gives the office, but no order was issued to obtain the records from Funk and Associates. She said the
sheriff would require a separate court
order to retrieve the documents from Funk and Associates.
Clark’s court will convene again at 1 p.m. on Sept. 16.
In the meantime, Jimmy Faircloth, LSU’s attorney, and Loretta Mince, attorney for The Advocate and NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, will attempt to reach a legal agreement called a stipulation.
If the attorneys reach an agreement, the University will turn the documents over to Clark by Sept. 16, and Clark will likely suspend the University’s contempt of court fine, Mince said. Clark placed a $500 per day fine on the University in August for each day it failed to turn over the records.
But both attorneys were quick to point out that stipulations involve heavy negotiations, and they could not say what the stipulation would entail until speaking with their clients.
Faircloth said part of the University’s reason for dragging its feet in turning in the documents is the unclear situation of its appeal of the lawsuit. The University appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in June, but the attorneys disagree on whether the appeal will be heard.
“We want to comply with the court’s order and keep our right to appeal, not comply with the order and forfeit our right to appeal,” Faircloth said.
Clark originally ordered the University to turn over the names and résumés of approximately 35 applicants to the presidential position April 30. The University responded by revealing the names of 10 individuals who submitted applications, but refused to comply with the rest of Clark’s order.
Funk and Associates was hired to assist the University with the search for a suitable candidate in August 2012. From a pool of 100, Funk narrowed the list of candidates to 35. From that list, only F. King Alexander was submitted as a finalist, and was later named to the newly combined
president-chancellor position.