The door to the hearing room opened and Mark's head floated through the opening. Ah good, thought Henry, just the kind of distraction I need to stop this line of questioning. "We will now introduce this material," he said as he got up to take the large brown envelope Mark produced in the doorway. "The dates on these documents, used as standards by the document examiners, are more recent." Smugly, he handed copies of these documents to each of the panel members and then to Diana, keeping one set for himself.
"These documents appear to be copies from personnel files," observed Diana, looking at the chair for confirmation.
"Yes," Henry confirmed. "They were taken from your personnel file and sent by the university attorney to use as standards."
"Then I would like to see the release I signed so that this material could be removed from my file," demanded Trenchant.
"Release? No release was necessary," Henry looked puzzled and frowned with annoyance.
"Mr. Chairman, you have made note several times that this termination hearing is justified by a certain paragraph in the faculty handbook," Diana replied firmly. "In that same handbook, there is a paragraph stating that no material shall be removed from a faculty person's file without the permission of that person. If you have a handbook here, I will find the exact wording and read it to you."
"Oh, I know what you are referring to and that does not apply in this case," Henry ruled quickly and then turned to the panel and said, "We must get on with it. Are these your handwriting?"
"I don't know. These are copies. Copies are suspicious."
Anuse interjected demanding to know why.
Diana explained to him that she had done a great deal of research, since she had first been charged, into document examination. Accomplished document examiners insist on original, authentic standards. Except for a couple, all of these so-called standards are copies. In addition, as you will recall from her answer to the questions I asked her, the examiner you engaged admitted that she did not know of her own knowledge that I had written the standards she used.