Published: April 03, 2008 10:05 pm      

COLUMN: Rodriguez hearing just the start

MORGANTOWN — There came a point not long after entering Courtroom 301 at the Monongalia County Courthouse on High Street where this awful urge for popcorn overcame me. At first it felt strange, even though one of my favorite movies was “Twelve Angry Men”, to be in such an austere setting as a courtroom and feeling as though I was in a movie theater.

As I gazed around the room, it hit me why I was overcome with this feeling that I was at a movie.

If this first hearing over what is quite a contentious proceeding between Rich Rodriguez, the former West Virginia football coach, and his former employer, West Virginia University, were to be given a title it certainly would be “Men in Black.”

There they were, a room full of lawyers, each one wearing a suit as black as the judge’s robe.

They looked so much alike that they should have worn a number on their backs. To defray the trial expense, perhaps they could even have sold programs.

You could almost hear the vendor going through the spectator section shouting: “Program, get your program here! Can’t tell the lawyers without a program!”

Just to add to the football-like atmosphere, there were even cheerleaders. OK, one cheerleader, at least former cheerleader. Rita Rodriguez, the coach’s wife, was joined by assistant coach Tony Gibson’s wife, the two of them somehow finding a way to get out of Michigan spring practice, something Rodriguez decided he could not to do, even with $4 million at stake.

While this was only the coin flip before the game, you could sense that there was a great deal of animosity in the air. Why, if they could have produced it like they do on what used to be called “Court TV” they could have hired Keith Jackson, who surely would have said in his pre-hearing build up “These two teams just don’t like each other.”

Overseeing the matter is easy-going Judge Robert Stone, who is both well organized and insightful, but who also is colorful enough to keep the matter as light-hearted as is possible.

To understand how he does this, consider the moment when the lawyers became involved in a discussion about something that was out of place for this hearing, an issue that began on the bench.

“I raised that issue,” Stone said, adding a second later, “My bad.”

My bad? Wonder which law class he pulled that one out of?

After hearing a morning of legalese over procedural motions, a couple of things became relatively clear.

First and foremost, this trial is going to go into overtime.

Talk was they were going to try to end this by mid-summer so that Rodriguez could get into the coaching of the Michigan team without having this also on his docket.

“To suggest this case will be over by mid-summer is not very realistic or achievable,” Stone surmised.

“We thought it was ambitious to get this case resolved before football season, although we thought we could do it,” added Tom Flaherty, the lead attorney for the university.

Second, the key issue in the case seems to be Rodriguez’s claim that was fraudulently induced into signing the contract with a $4 million buyout, claiming WVU President Mike Garrison had put an arm around his shoulder and told him that he didn’t believe in buyouts and wouldn’t be enforcing such a clause. It is a rather strange proposition to cling to, considering that Rodriguez had actually first agreed to a $4 million buyout before Garrison had come on the scene.

The university lawyers challenged the validity of using fraud as a charge from Rodriguez but Stone agreed that it would be a matter for the jury to decide. While not a touchdown, it certainly was a first down for the coach.

“I think it is extremely significant,” said Marv Robon, Rodriguez’s lead counsel. “This is an academic institution. Academic institutions talk about freedom of knowledge, free of thinking, freedom of the press. Now the truth will be allowed to come out.”

The truth, they say, is that Garrison pulled a fast one on Rodriguez.

No so, says the WVU team.

“President Garrison is very anxious to testify on that issue,” Flaherty said.

When asked about charges that Garrison was hiding things from Rodriguez during the negotiations, Flaherty countered with:

“That’s ludicrous, obviously. Mike Garrison is an honorable man. The assertion he or anyone else is trying to hide something is patently offensive and obviously wrong.”

There was another item on the Rodriguez agenda, one which claims the $4 million liquidated damages figure to be far out of line, Robon claiming that a sports economist hired by them said WVU’s true damages were between $150,000 and $200,000.

But then Robon made what would seem to be a rather fantastic and, in fact, insulting analogy, comparing Rodriguez having to pay a $4 million “bounty” to jump to a job that pays him $2.5 million a year to a slave having to buy his freedom in Civil War days.

“I was thinking the other night back before the Civil War slaves had the right to buy their freedom. A penalty of $4 million is almost like a slave having to buy his freedom. It’s an outrageous amount and it’s not fair,” said Robon.

The only people who qualified as slaves during the Rodriguez regime at WVU were the players who did the work and didn’t share in the profits. Certainly not the coach.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.