The University Court’s refusal to grant a writ of certiorari Wednesday night effectively dismissed complaints against Student Government President-elect Colorado Robertson. University Court Chief Justice Mark Hill announced the ruling during the Student Senate meeting and said the verdict was unanimous with one absence. Hill said the case contesting the eligibility of Robertson and Shannon Bates to serve as SG president and vice president has been dissolved.
“The idea of a writ of certiorari is, if a case does not have grounds to be heard, certiorari can be denied and the case is dismissed,” Hill said.
Jeffrey Noel, the student who filed the complaints, also filed an injunction before the Senate meeting began stating all winners of the SG runoff election this past week could not be sworn in until the appeal was heard. Hill said the University Court’s ruling automatically ended the injunction.
Hill said he will administer the Oath of Office to Robertson, Bates and new senators on April 21 – just four days before the inauguration ceremony.
Noel, mass communication freshman, filed the seven complaints Monday which said the Robertson-Bates ticket spent $61.37 more than their $866.50-allowed runoff budget. He claimed the ticket had $101.49 in total unaccounted expenditures. Noel’s seventh complaint alleged Robertson’s ticket also illegally used computers during campaigning.
Though Noel filed the complaints at the beginning of the week in an effort to disqualify the Robertson-Bates ticket, no judge ever heard the complaints. The University Trial Court cases did examine several contradictory articles from the SG Constitution and SG Election Code. The judicial documents with the article discrepancies stirred controversy as to whether the complaints should be heard.
“Student Government has failed miserably as far as legislation goes, and I think the legislative branch has failed our student body,” Dowie said earlier Wednesday.
Noel appealed the case Wednesday after University Trial Court Judge Rob Dowie dismissed it. Dowie said although he ruled Tuesday in favor of the complaints to be heard by the court, he reversed his decision after an article in the SG Constitution was brought to his attention stating a person has 48 hours from the announcement of the election to file a complaint.
Dowie’s Wednesday dismissal, which was upheld by the University Court’s refusal to grant an appeal, favored Robertson’s co-counsel who argued that Noel’s complaints were not filed before the required deadline.
Daniel Marsh, political science sophomore, served as Robertson’s co-counsel and motioned for the case’s dismissal. He said while the University Trial Court may have the power to decide SG election controversies instead of the SG Election Board, Noel was still not justified in the timeframe in which he submitted the complaints.
Dowie ruled Marsh was correct that the SG Constitution does not stipulate the two days must be “class” days.
Noel said he was disappointed with the University Court’s decision to uphold Dowie’s ruling.
“I’m more disappointed because I just wanted to fight to make these complaints heard in court,” Noel said.
Noel said he will hold Robertson accountable and he wants to meet with Robertson to hear his defense for the complaints.
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected].