Smith jury decides in U.Va.'s favor

An eight-person federal jury on Oct. 20 cleared the University Judiciary Committee and Vice President for Student Affairs William W. Harmon of wrongdoing in its handling of Richard W. Smith's 1998 expulsion for an assault on a fellow U.Va. student.

Smith had sued Harmon, the UJC, University President John T. Casteen III and the Board of Visitors, alleging that he was denied due process. Smith was expelled after a Nov. 21, 1998 hearing, which he did not attend.

Smith skipped the UJC trial, claiming that Harmon had assured him the trial would be postponed. Harmon testified that he did not have the authority to postpone the trial, and that his recommendation that it be postponed was rejected by the UJC.

Midway through the trial, the judge dismissed Casteen and the Board of Visitors from the suit.

Similar lawsuits are pending on behalf of two other students expelled in the same UJC trial, Harrison Kerr Tigrett and Bradley Clark Kintz.