Whenever Len Audaer steps into Syracuse University’s College of Law, he is reminded that his hard work might be for nothing.

The second-year law student, who is focusing on national security and counterterrorism, cannot concentrate on his studies. Audaer said his grades are fine, but the more he studies for classes, the more he feels his hard work will result in nothing.

‘Studying for law school, studying for class, is a constant reminder of the precarious position I’m in and of the fact that I feel that I’m signing my own death warrant,’ he said.

It has been more than eight weeks since Audaer was accused of being the writer of SUCOLitis, a satirical blog about SU’s College of Law. The administration at the law school is continuing its investigation into Audaer for harassment but has not yet charged or presented him with the evidence against him, Audaer said.

There have been no advances in the investigation since October, as far as Audaer knows.

‘Since then — nothing,’ Audaer said.  ‘They haven’t done anymore. As far as I know, the investigation is ongoing, but I have yet to receive any sort of decision to prosecute.’

Audaer has taken the step to get his own lawyer — Mark Blum, a graduate of SU’s law school who has offered to represent Audaer for free. The two have been working together for about three weeks.

As with any accused person, the presence of the investigation is always in the back of Audaer’s mind, Blum said. What is bothersome is that the law school presumed Audaer guilty without a trial, Blum said.

Audaer, a British citizen, has formerly worked in a security branch of the British government. He passed all of the ‘extremely in-depth background checks,’ Audaer said. Now the law school is painting him as a student agitator, he said.

‘I’m not the person they seem to be trying to package me as,’ Audaer said.

Audaer said he was told in an initial meeting Oct. 18 with Tomas Gonzales, dean of student life, that the original female complainant specifically named him. But Audaer said he has never professed any connection to the blog. The female filed against Audaer after reading a post on SUCOLitis that said she had hooked up with more than one male law school student at the beginning of the semester, Audaer said.

The case has also picked up an additional faculty prosecutor. When Blum went to a Dec. 2 meeting with Greg Germain, who has been the faculty prosecutor since the investigation first became known in October, he was introduced to Steven Wechsler as the assistant faculty prosecutor, Blum said.

A student representative is usually also included in the investigation process, but Audaer said he believes Wechsler has replaced a student because Audaer is well known throughout the law school.

He is personally friends with four of the six students on the judicial board, he said. One of his friends from the board has already been approached and informed that he will have nothing to do with the case, Audaer said. This undermines both the student representative and those who voted for him, believing the representative could do his job impartially, Audaer said.

Specifics of the Dec. 2 meeting could not be discussed because they related to the investigation, Blum said. But he did speak to Wechsler and Germain about the harm the investigation was doing and could potentially do to Audaer.

If Audaer is charged, he will have to disclose it whenever he applies for admission to any state board, Blum said. Additionally, Audaer could graduate from law school and pass the bar but will still need to be approved by the character and fitness committee. Blum said a charge could mean Audaer is denied admission.

‘If he’s even charged, his law degree will be worthless,’ Blum said. ‘And what they’re basically doing is stealing his money because they’re giving him a degree that he’ll never be able to put to use as a practicing attorney.’

Blum said he is working on trying to resolve the issue with Germain and Wechsler. 

Neither Germain nor Wechsler would comment on the investigation.

‘I cannot discuss my investigation because, as the faculty prosecutor, my investigation is confidential to protect student privacy rights,’ Germain said in e-mail.

However, Germain previously commented on the issue in an Oct. 20 article in the American Bar Association Journal.

Germain said, in the article, that he believes the blog was created in bad taste.

‘I also think that students who make anonymous blog posts to ridicule and embarrass other students deserve the enmity of the community,’ Germain said in the article. ‘In my opinion, immature, cowardly bullying should be strongly condemned, especially in a professional school where we have a responsibility to train students to be lawyers who must demonstrate a high standard of honesty, integrity, fairness, confidentiality and judgment.’

But Germain emphasized in the article that he has no plans to charge a student for a violation of the student code or for bad taste. He can only make a charge if he believes bad judgment has crossed the line and has become harassment, he said.

Should he decide to prosecute, Germain said an independent faculty hearing panel will hear the case.

Audaer is being investigated for harassment based on technological and circumstantial evidence from writing style, Blum said.

But defining the blog as harassment is difficult, Blum said, because there is no definition of harassment in the student code for the law school. Even if the traditional definition of harassment is applied, Blum said he doubts the law school will have a basis to charge. Blum used the example of one person repeatedly calling and bothering another. If the person complains and the caller stops, there is no harassment. But as far as he knows, no complaints asking the writers to stop were filed with the blog.

Blum said he has been in contact with the people behind SUCOLitis. He would not disclose how he came in contact with them.

Although Blum said he believes the law school lacks basis for filing a charge, he has not been given the documents or specifics against Audaer. Germain and Wechsler said he could receive this information if he signed a waiver saying he would not release the information, which Blum said he will not do.

Germain and Wechsler are not the only ones at the law school who are tight-lipped about the proceedings. Following a request to interview Dean Hannah Arterian, Jaclyn Grosso, director of communications and media relations at the law school, said in an e-mail that the administration at the law school could not comment because the matter is under investigation.

Blum said he believes Arterian and potentially Chancellor Nancy Cantor could be involved in the investigation because of the attention that has been given to the case. Blum and Audaer agreed they felt the investigation reflected a growing trend of the university becoming more involved with the private lives of students.

‘My conversations with them lead me to believe that there’s orders coming from above to prosecute this case,’ Blum said. ‘Whether they do or don’t, I don’t know. We’re still talking, trying to see if we can resolve this without a prosecution because, unlike any other student anywhere else in the university, a law student is in a precarious position.’

The chancellor is not involved in the matter because it is a matter within the law school, said Kevin Quinn, SU senior vice president of public affairs, in an e-mail. Several students in the law school filed complaints about the site, Quinn said.

Audaer said he was told by Gonzales that the issue would only take a few weeks to resolve, but Audaer said he does not expect the issue to be over before Winter Break.

No matter the outcome, Audaer said the experience will always follow him because people will remember he was accused.

‘The people who know me very well, that’s not going to be the first thing they think about when they work with me in 20, 30 years time,’ Audaer said. ‘The people who don’t know me real well, that’s going to be the first thing that comes to their mind.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on December 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride