Pepper-spray investigators have UCD ties

UC Davis has hired to investigate the arrest and pepper-spraying of protesters a law firm with past links to the university’s administration.

Van Dermyden Allison Law Corp. of Sacramento’s seven-member team includes two attorneys who have worked at UCD, according to the firm’s website.

Shareholder Deborah Allison worked as an attorney in the general counsel’s office at UCD from 2000 to January 2007.

UCD spokesperson Claudia Morain said the attorneys’ past employment does not constitute a conflict of interest.

“The university has retained the firm due to its wealth of experience in conducting workplace investigations and its reputation for excellence in the legal community,” Morain said in an email message, adding, “Deborah Allison’s knowledge of how the university works is invaluable, and makes her uniquely qualified to conduct this review.”

Another attorney working for the firm, Michael Sheesley, served first as UCD’s director of advocacy and research in the Office of Human Resources, then as director of employee and labor relations, before going to work for the firm, according to its website.

He worked on campus from 1985 until December 2009.

Van Dermyden Allison and a second firm, Yorba Linda-based Norman A. Traub Associates, have been hired for an “independent and comprehensive” fact-finding investigation that started on Sunday and “will move forward with all deliberate speed,” Morain said.

Investigators will have unrestricted access to its employees and any evidence related to the arrest and pepper-spraying of protesters, UCD has said.

Eric Lee is a June UCD graduate who has been active with Occupy UC Davis, which is protesting tuition hikes, the privatizing of the university and economic inequality. On Nov. 18, police arrested nine students and one alumnus, then pepper-sprayed about a dozen more, while clearing the protesters’ camp from the Quad.

Lee said that hiring a firm with ties to UCD was “frankly, an insult.”

“This underlines the fact that this entire investigation is a farce, it’s a joke, and it’s been put out there to distract us,” Lee said.

Allison’s involvement recalls another choice that has taken fire: UC President Mark Yudof’s selection of former Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.

Bratton is the chairman of Kroll Security, a firm that has done background checks, advised on security for foreign dignitaries and other jobs for campuses, according to the UC Office of the President.

That past work and work for Wall Street companies the students are protesting for their greed has raised red flags for some, including the Council of UC Faculty Associations.

Allison, a 1993 graduate of the UCD School of Law, did not immediately return a call for comment on Thursday.

Her firm is being paid $250 per hour, by the office of the vice chancellor for administration and resource management, and Traub Associates $160 per hour.

Morain added that the university was “unable to to obtain unpaid volunteers who have the time or expertise to conduct these challenging investigations.”

Administrators, faculty and staff will “conduct less challenging reviews, based on their willingness to dedicate extra time to these efforts,” she said.

The two firms are jointly investigating the use of force on Nov. 18. Traub Associates’ expertise is in use-of-force issues and Van Dermyden Allison’s is in employment practices, Morain said.

UCD is specifically working with Ed Mc Erlain from Traub Associates.

A former police captain, he supervised “hundreds” of personnel investigations and has served as chairman of the California Peace Officers’ Association’s ethics and standards committee, according to an online biography.

While at UCD, standing committees that Allison served on included the Ethics Advisory Committee and Student Crisis Response Team. The latter works with students with mental health problems and who may be a threat to themselves or others.

The crisis team is not the same as what was known as the Student Activism Response Team, a group with which students have taken issue with in the past. It has since been renamed the Freedom of Expression Support Team.

Duties of of the support team volunteers include accompanying demonstrators if they move through campus; pointing out safety issues; offering suggestions for how to handle crowds, including counter-protesters; and requesting additional staff or police if needed.

In April, students accused team members of spying on protesters.

Campus officials denied that was the case, saying student affairs staff had long been present at protests to help students, not spy on them. What changed, officials said, was the team’s need to enlist more staff because of the growing number of protests on campus.

— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=111864

Posted by Cory Golden on Dec 1 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 03:57:15 PM PDT
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