Testimony: Election fears tied to Carhart dismissal BY BUTCH MABIN Lincoln Journal Star
Members of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, fearing an electoral backlash from disclosures that the medical school used fetal tissue supplied by abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart, either lobbied against the doctor or attempted to woo pro-life activists, according to court testimony and interviews this week.
In testimony in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Robert Bartee, executive assistant to the NU Medical Center chancellor, said Regent Drew Miller, in e-mails to Bartee last year, expressed concern that Carhart's link to the school could jeopardize Miller's re-election.
"He was in a tight primary and general election," Bartee testified. "He was someone fighting for his re-election life."
Miller, of Papillion, said Wednesday that he had recommended Carhart resign from a volunteer faculty position at the med center and even asked the doctor to step down at an August 2000 lunch meeting.
He and a number of other university officials, including President Dennis Smith, med center Chancellor Harold Maurer and med center Dean James Armitage, are being sued by Carhart on allegations the school terminated his volunteer faculty position because of political pressure.
Carhart is seeking permanent reinstatement and unspecified damages for, among other things, defamation, loss of reputation and professional esteem and injury to his career.
A hearing was held Monday and Tuesday before U.S. Senior District Judge Warren K. Urbom on Carhart's motion for a preliminary injunction that would temporarily reinstate him until the dispute is settled at trial.
Urbom was expected to rule no sooner than late March on the motion.
In testimony this week, Carhart said he and Miller met for lunch in August at an Offutt Air Force Base restaurant. Miller presented Carhart with a draft news release that would announce the doctor's resignation. However, Carhart testified, he told Miller he would not resign.
Bartee testified that Miller was thinking about the news release idea at least as early as last spring. On April 18, for example, Miller sent Bartee a draft news release, Bartee said. He said Miller recommended Metro Right to Life and its president, Bob Blank, should be mentioned in the news release as contributing to the resignation.
A March 30 e-mail from Miller discussed alternative sources for fetal tissue if Carhart were to resign and quit supplying the tissue to the medical center, Bartee said.
And in an April 5 e-mail from Bartee to Miller, Bartee said he would be meeting with Kim Robak, university vice president for external affairs, and Ron Withem, associate vice president for external affairs, to discuss the "university strategy" and the "regents' strategy."
Bartee testified that the university strategy was related to keeping fetal tissue research alive at the med center. The regents strategy was concerned with the re-elections of Regents Miller, Rosemary Skrupa and Chuck Hassebrook.
The meeting did not take place, Bartee said, adding that Robak, Withem and Hassebrook were often sent copies of Miller's e-mails.
Other e-mails from Miller to Bartee at this time described Carhart's relationship with the university as a "negative," Bartee testified. In one e-mail, Miller said Carhart was "universally hated," Bartee said.
He testified he did not believe in early 2000 that Carhart needed to resign. He said a bill then under consideration by the Legislature that would have banned the use of fetal tissue from aborted fetuses in research would have passed regardless of the doctor's faculty status.
Bartee said he began to favor the resignation that summer, now fearing pro-life voters in November might unseat the regents who supported the research. He testified the same-sex marriage amendment, also on the November ballot, would draw to the polls an additional block of voters who would vote against the regents.
He said Miller had told him the pro-life efforts against his re-election had already been felt in the primary campaign.
"He had experienced an impact on his campaign," Bartee said. "The volunteers, the donors were not there like they were before."
Miller told Bartee the other regents up for re-election, apparently referring to Skrupa and Hassebrook, had experienced similar effects on their campaigns.
The controversy with the fetal tissue began in 1999 with the disclosure the university was using tissue from fetuses aborted by Carhart.
Dr. Howard Gendelman, director of the med center's neurological research center, is heading a group of researchers who are using the tissue as part of their research on Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS-related dementia.
After the 1999 disclosure, Gov. Mike Johanns asked the university to stop the research. The Board of Regents, at a December 1999 meeting, nevertheless voted to continue the research.
Bob Blank, president of Metro Right to Life, said the vote and revelations that Carhart was a volunteer faculty member launched an vigorous grass-roots campaign aimed at ending use of aborted fetuses and getting Carhart's appointment terminated.
In addition, he said, activists targeted Miller and Skrupa, both up for re-election, because they voted at the December 1999 meeting to continue the research. Miller was re-elected in November, but Skrupa, of Omaha, was defeated by Randy Ferlic.
Blank said the university's stated reason for terminating Carhart's appointment - that he was assigned to a department outside his area of expertise - was a cover for jettisoning a political liability.
Carhart had held the appointment since 1997. He was among 30 volunteer faculty members to whom the med center sent letters in September notifying them their appointments would be terminated effective December 2000 because they were assigned to departments outside their specialties.
The university has said each of the 30 were invited to reapply to departments consistent with their fields.
Blank said Wednesday that Skrupa telephoned shortly before the September letters were mailed and promised him "something big" was about to happen. At the time, Blank said, he was unsure what Skrupa was referring to, but assumed it had to do with the fetal tissue research.
His next telephone call from her came shortly after the letters were sent. "She said, 'I told you something big would happen,' " he said.
Skrupa could not be reached to comment Wednesday. Reach Butch Mabin at 473-7234 or bmabin@journalstar.com.
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