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Published Wednesday March 14, 2001 Politics Played Role in Carhart Case, Official Says BY ROBYNN TYSVER
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

RELATED STORIES » Ouster Was Political, Carhart Testifies

A University of Nebraska regent lobbied for the removal of Dr. LeRoy Carhart from his volunteer faculty position at the NU Medical Center, a top university official testified Tuesday in federal court.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart

Bob Bartee, an assistant to the chancellor of the Medical Center, said he attempted to persuade Carthart to resign his position at the urging of Regent Drew Miller, who was seeking re-election.

Miller believed the public would be more supportive of fetal-tissue research and candidates who supported such research if the controversial Bellevue abortion doctor did not have an honorary position on the faculty, Bartee testified.

"The effort was to try to have regents who supported the fetal-tissue research," Bartee said in response to a question from Simon Heller, Carhart's attorney.

"So, you were hoping to influence the outcome of an election?" Simon asked.

"Yes," Bartee said.

Bartee's testimony came on the second day of a hearing on Carhart's quest to have his faculty position at the Medical Center reinstated. Carhart is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court.

Carhart's unpaid faculty position was terminated in October. He alleges that he was fired for political reasons and because of his high negative rating within the anti-abortion community.

Anti-abortion activists strongly oppose Carhart, in part, because of his successful challenge that overturned Nebraska's "partial-birth" abortion ban. He also supplied fetal brain tissue used in the controversial research done at the Medical Center.

The university maintains that Carhart's termination was not linked to fetal-tissue research or abortion. Officials said that it came about as part of a reorganization of about 300 volunteer faculty positions and that Carhart did not attempt to work through university channels to keep a faculty position.

If Carhart's request for an injunction is denied, he may pursue a lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages for the harm done to his reputation by the dismissal.

The two-day court hearing, which ended Tuesday, involved testimony on numerous e-mails that were sent by Miller to top university officials.

In one e-mail, Miller said it would be "great to unlink" from Carhart before the primary election. In another e-mail, Miller linked his campaign's re-election efforts with Carhart's removal.

And, in a March e-mail, Miller outlined an approach that he thought would be successful in getting Carhart to resign, including a threat of forced removal.

"If necessary," Miller wrote to Bartee, "you let him know he may have it (faculty position) removed in disgrace, far better relinquish it in respectful/hero manner."

Miller, who defeated former State Auditor John Breslow in November, was not called as a witness by either side during the hearing.

However, when contacted Tuesday, Miller declined to comment, citing advice from his lawyers.

"Until the trial is over," he said, "they don't want me talking to the media."

Miller had been seeking Carhart's removal from the faculty, either voluntarily or forced, since early 2000, a few months after the fetal-tissue controversy erupted.

The political tug of war started in November 1999 after The World-Herald reported that the Medical Center was using tissue from aborted fetuses in research.

Bartee arranged a meeting with Carhart in April, during which he broached the subject of Carhart's possible resignation.

However, Bartee said, he did not ask Carhart to resign but indicated that at some point he could make the request if it was best for the university.

Bartee said he did not bow from pressure from Miller to try to force Carhart to resign before the primary election, because he did not believe it would help the university's efforts to kill a proposed ban on fetal-tissue research in the Nebraska Legislature.

"I did not feel we would get one vote from one senator (with Carhart's resignation)," said Bartee, a legislative liaison for the chancellor's office.

In August, Bartee requested another meeting with Carhart. At that time, he told the doctor that his resignation could help the election campaigns of candidates who supported fetal-tissue research.

Carhart refused to resign.

However, at that time, the university had launched a study of volunteer faculty positions. It was that review that eventually led to Carhart's dismissal, university officials said.

James Armitage, dean of the NU College of Medicine, testified that he created a task force to study the volunteer faculty positions within days after he assumed his post in April.

Armitage said that based on the task force's oral findings, he decided to require all volunteer faculty members who were not appointed in their field of expertise to reapply.

That decision affected Carhart, a surgeon who was a faculty member within the department of pathology.

Despite the controversy, Armitage said, he was not asked to terminate Carhart.