Archives for October 2011

From the Associated Press

From the Lewiston Tribune

MOSCOW — The employment records of former University of Idaho psychology professor Ernesto Bustamante will be released Wednesday, two months after he killed graduate student Katy Benoit.

UI President Duane Nellis will discuss the records at a 1 p.m. news conference at the Student Union Building.

A judge cleared the way Oct. 3 for the release of Bustamante’s records after several news organizations including the Idaho Statesman, the Lewiston Tribune, the Spokesman-Review and the Associated Press filed formal requests for their release.

In his ruling, 2nd District Judge John R. Stegner cited an overriding public interest in disclosing the documents to allow people to make their own judgments about how the university handled the Benoit case.

Bustamante shot Benoit Aug. 22 at her off-campus residence three days after he resigned from the university, then killed himself early the next morning.

Benoit had been in a romantic relationship with Bustamante, but filed a sexual harassment complaint with the university after he made several violent threats against her.

The UI already has released Benoit’s student records, which included a detailed timeline of the events and actions around her case. A similar timeline is expected to be included in Wednesday’s release.

The Bustamante records may reveal the nature of his resignation, whether other students filed complaints against him, whether the university knew about his apparent mental health issues and whether it knew that he reportedly carried concealed weapons on campus.

From the Lewiston Tribune

Editorial from the Idaho Statesman

Ernesto Bustamante left in his wake a premeditated and violent crime.

And a voluminous virtual paper trail: an estimated 70,000 emails over the course of four years teaching psychology at the University of Idaho.

These documents may answer the most nagging questions about Bustamante, the assistant professor who left the U of I’s staff on Aug. 19, murdered Boise native and U of I graduate student Katy Benoit on Aug. 22, and turned a gun on himself on Aug. 23.

These documents may reveal what U of I administrators knew — and when they knew it:

* Did Bustamante have affairs with other U of I students, aside from Benoit? Since sexual relationships between faculty and students violate university policy, was Bustamante disciplined?

* When did the U of I know that Bustamante had threatened Benoit with a gun on numerous occasions following their breakup? And since Bustamante was still on the payroll at the time, did he face disciplinary action?

* Were U of I officials aware of Bustamante’s mental condition — his multiple personalities, including one he called a “psychopathic killer” and one he named “the beast”? Did they know that Bustamante openly discussed his mental conditions with his students?

The public deserves answers. Every student who attends the U of I, every parent contemplating sending a son or daughter to the Moscow campus, has an unyielding right to know. (In the interest of full disclosure, Editorial Page Editor Kevin Richert’s oldest son is a U of I student, and he took a class from Bustamante.)

These answers may indeed cast the U of I in a negative light. The Bustamante e-mails may raise a new and troubling set of questions about due diligence, about red flags unheeded.

The facts may be revealed, in the weeks ahead, because of a ruling in a Moscow courtroom Monday. District Judge John R. Stegner authorized the release of the e-mails. Media outlets, including the Statesman, sought their release. Significantly, so did the U of I — the entity that has the most to lose from their release.

The university says it will release the records as soon as possible. Clearly, full and prompt disclosure is in the university’s best interest.

Stegner ruled on a narrow ambiguity in the law: Does a public employee’s right to privacy live on after death? Common sense rendered this one an easy call. The public interest clearly overrides the privacy concerns of a deceased public employee.

Stegner’s broader message transcends the issue at hand. Under state sunshine laws, government records are presumed to be open. Disclosure is the default position. Said Stegner, according to the Lewiston Tribune: “The overriding purpose of the (public records law) is to foster openness in government.”

A good reminder.

Editorial from the Idaho Statesman

From Eye on Boise/The Spokesman-Review

2nd District Judge John Stegner has ordered the personnel records of former UI Professor Ernesto Bustamante released, in a court case in which the University of Idaho and media organizations from across the state appealed to the court to see if privacy protections for state personnel records persist after the employee is dead; Bustamante shot himself to death after police say he fatally shot UI student Katy Benoit outside her Moscow home. “This provides us with what we sought: a clear path forward,” University of Idaho general counsel Kent Nelson said in a statement. “It has always been the university’s intention to be as open and transparent as the law allows in this matter.” Click below for a full report from the Lewiston Tribune and the Associated Press.

Judge Stegner, ruling from the bench, held that the definition of “former official” does include one who is dead, but then applied a balancing test and ordered disclosure of the records, determining that the public’s right to know outweighed the privacy right of the “former official.” The UI doesn’t plan to appeal the ruling, which sets precedent for such cases in the future.

Idaho judge orders release of professor’s records

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — A judge has ruled the University of Idaho should release the personnel records of a former professor who police say killed a 22-year-old graduate student and then committed suicide after their relationship ended.

The Lewiston Tribune reports (https://bit.ly/nZ8xCn ) 2nd District Judge John R. Stegner ordered the records of Ernesto Bustamante released on Monday.

In his ruling, Stegner decided the mandatory confidentiality of public employee personnel records ends with the death of the individual.

Bustamante resigned from the university three days before police say he shot Katy Benoit nearly a dozen times outside her Moscow home on Aug. 22 and then committed suicide in a hotel room.

Attorneys for the University of Idaho and several media outlets petitioned the court to rule that the former professor’s records were a matter of public record.

The university said it was discussing a timeline to release public material with lawyers for the media outlets that include The Associated Press, Idaho newspapers and the Idaho Press Club.

“This provides us with what we sought: a clear path forward,” University of Idaho general counsel Kent Nelson said in a statement. “It has always been the university’s intention to be as open and transparent as the law allows in this matter.”

Nelson added that the university is currently complying with a search warrant from the district court as the law enforcement investigation into the deaths continues. Under the warrant, the institution is gathering and turning over university documents related to Bustamante and Benoit.

As the university makes this material available to law enforcement officials, it said it is also making copies of the records in response to public records requests from media outlets.

The records including emails number “in the tens of thousands,” Nelson said.

From Eye on Boise/The Spokesman-Review