Dean: Carhart call apolitical BY BUTCH MABIN Lincoln Journal Star
The two-day hearing on abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart's request to be reinstated to a volunteer faculty position ended Tuesday with testimony from the medical center dean that Carhart was not removed because of political pressure.
Dr. James O. Armitage, dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, testified that Carhart's termination was part of a general policy, initiated last year by Armitage, to improve the medical school's volunteer faculty program.
As part of that improvement, he said, any volunteer faculty with appointments in departments outside their areas of specialization had to get reassignments in their fields.
"The purpose of the whole process was not to get rid of faculty," he said. "Its purpose was to say, 'You got appointed incorrectly, here's how you go about correcting that.' "
U.S. Senior District Judge Warren K. Urbom will rule later on whether to grant Carhart's request to be temporarily reinstated until the dispute can be resolved at trial. No trial date has been set.
Carhart alleged in a January lawsuit he was removed from a volunteer position in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology because of political pressure from pro-life supporters and opponents of fetal tissue research.
The Bellevue doctor received the appointment in 1997. Last September he received a letter from Armitage and Dr. Sam Cohen, chairman of the Pathology Department, that his appointment would end in December unless he applied by Oct. 1 to another department consistent with his field.
Carhart had been involved in fetal tissue research as part of his appointment. In addition, he received national notoriety when he challenged a Nebraska law banning a late-term abortion procedure.
A divided U.S. Supreme Court last summer said the law banning so-called partial birth abortions was unconstitutional.
At the hearing Tuesday, Lincoln lawyer David Buntain, attorney for university officials being sued by Carhart, asked Armitage whether the school terminated the doctor because he challenged the abortion law.
"Of course not," Armitage replied. Armitage said he had been interested in reviewing the medical center's volunteer faculty rolls at least as early as October 1999, when he interviewed for the dean's position.
He said he had been partly concerned with the practice of allowing volunteer faculty to be assigned to departments outside their areas of specialization. He said the practice at times created morale problems and "chaos" within the school.
Shortly after he became dean in April 2000, Armitage organized a committee to review the appointments.
One of the committee members, Dr. Michael Sitorius, testified that Carhart's name never came up at committee meetings.
Sitorius later developed a report on the committee's findings. Based on those findings, Armitage in September issued an estimated 270 letters to volunteer faculty who appeared to be inactive.
Carhart was among 30 remaining volunteers who, the school says, were sent letters informing them they needed to apply to departments aligned with their expertise.
On Monday, Carhart's attorneys attempted to get testimony from pro-life activist Bob Blank that the committee findings were a cover to get rid of the doctor, but Urbom disallowed it.
Tuesday, reproductive law attorney Simon Heller appeared to return to that theory.
Sitorius, questioned by Heller, said 19 of the 30 letters were to volunteer faculty in family medicine. He said those doctors' letters stated the school would help them make a transition to other departments. Eight of the remaining 11 letters went to volunteer faculty in the Radiology Department.
Armitage testified that seven of those volunteers did not reapply. One did but was not appointed. Heller asked Armitage how that experience supported earlier statements from the dean that the review was not intended to purge faculty.
"This accomplished the goal (of) morale," he said.
Carhart did not testify Tuesday. But in an earlier deposition entered into evidence Tuesday, he stated that he did not apply for another appointment because he believed the school was attempting to get rid of him.
In other testimony Tuesday, Robert Bartee, public relations officer for med center Chancellor Harold Mauer, said he was unaware of the faculty review when he met with Carhart Aug. 8.
At that meeting, Bartee asked Carhart if he would resign. Bartee testified that he had become concerned the doctor's continued appointment might jeopardize the re-elections in November of Nebraska regents who support fetal tissue research.
"I told him we need to save the research," Bartee said. "He said it'll (a resignation) look like we're weak." Reach Butch Mabin at 473-7234 or bmabin@journalstar.com.
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