Judge orders USF to release Leavitt notes (Per Greg's Blog)

[thebouncer1898]

TAMPA -- Former USF coach Jim Leavitt was back in court Tuesday for a hearing in his suit against his former employer, and a judge ordered USF to release unredacted notes from interviews in the investigation that led to Leavitt's firing in January.

USF's attorneys had released a redacted version of the notes in June, but attorney Wil Florin successfully argued that the notes should be provided to him with minimal redaction, with exceptions for references to students' medical condition. Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Bernard Silver also ordered that those notes could not be released to any third party outside the case.

USF's attorneys are still protecting 800 documents that they argue are exempted from release, either by attorney-client privilege or other measures, and the judge gave USF attorney Richard McCrea two weeks to submit a new privilege log that details why the documents -- which have been read in chambers by the judge -- shouldn't be entered in discovery.

"It was a good day. It took a long time for us to finally get to this point," Florin said to reporters after the hourlong hearing. "I don't understand why, if USF has nothing to hide, why they were fighting so hard to prevent us from getting these documents so the truth gets out."

Gerard Solis, USF's Senior Associate General Counsel, issued a statement after the hearing, explaining that USF's position was not about hiding anything but protecting the rights of its students.

"The University's priority is to protect the privacy of our students," he wrote. "We are glad that the Court's ruling today ensures that private student information will not be trampled upon for litigation interests."

With additional hearings upcoming as the two sides argue on discovery issues, and with Leavitt's attorneys seeking depositions from many of the witnesses interviewed by USF's investigators, it could be some time before the suit goes to trial. "We'll see how it plays out," the judge said in ending the hearing. "It's a long way between now and the ultimate resolution of this case."

Leavitt, who is not coaching this fall and seeks as much as $7-million that would have been contractually paid to him had he been fired "without cause," reiterated that he wants to get back to football but wants to see his name cleared first.

"It's very important that the truth gets out," Leavitt said. "It takes time. I want to coach. You think I really want to do all this? No. But I have to, because I want the truth to get out. That is paramount to me. You think I want to go through Saturdays and not coach? This is too important."

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/bulls/content/judge-orders-usf-release-leavitt-notes

[thebouncer1898]

Put the gloves back on boys and girls, here we go again!!

It'll be interesting to see what kind of substance is in the released documentation and who it will benefit in the end...

[Who'sYourData?]

Hooray!  It's been boring.

Can I just cut out 150 posts or so from the previous threads and paste them in here?  It'll save us all a lot of trouble, and get the same points across.

[Who'sYourData?]

Put the gloves back on boys and girls, here we go again!!

It'll be interesting to see what kind of substance is in the released documentation

NONE

and who it will benefit in the end...

The attorneys from both sides

[Triple B]

Notes?? They didn't need no steenking notes ....

[usf97]

Hooray....more drama!

Seriously....what do you guys put the over/under for timeframe for this getting resolved?  2 years or 3 years? I mean technically we are already what.....8 to 9 months in. I could see this dragging out for a loooonnng time.

Yeah Lawyers.....heres to you Smazza.

[Who'sYourData?]

The only thing really surprising to me is that looks like it is going to drag out for another year or two.  I really expected that Leavitt's attorneys would be trying to wrap this up in time for Leavitt to be hired again.  Of course, there is still another couple of months before he needs to be back on the market, but I can't believe that the Leavitt team dragging this out helps his ability to get another job.

[cmhatter]

All this stuff about getting a job is bogus...

Leach, Leavitt, and Mangino will probably all get jobs.

Leavitt wants that 7 mil....

Any of the lawyers on the board: Is this something USF expected to happen? And they were just hiding these docs to make things difficult or what? I mean, USF has to figure this would happen.

[cmhatter]

This is a real shame... reading Greg's blog comments today I really had no idea there was so many people that were anti-leavitt on this issue.

Unbelievable... He will probably never be welcomed back to the university.

How much will this cost USF if we see it through to the end? It seems to me that no matter what we are screwed... If we see it through and we win... it will cost more than 7 mil... and if we see if through a lose it will cost like 14mil... Nuts

[thebouncer1898]

He must not have a whole lot of confidence in his ability to get another (somewhat) high-profile job again. 7 Mil in coaching salary at a BCS would take what, 3-4 years at the low end? That's how long the litigation will take and he'll never be able to get over the PR hit he has already taken, plus whatever will come his way as time goes on.