New claims in Oral Roberts University lawsuit*

by: APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
10/13/2007

It alleges documents were destroyed and a "sexual deviant" had access to
campus.

Three former Oral Roberts University professors made public on Friday
what their lawsuit against ORU describes as "the exact packet of
information" that they allege got two of them fired and resulted in
one's resignation.

Previous versions of their lawsuit contained only a summary of the
report, which was at least partially written by Stephanie Cantees, the
sister-in-law of ORU President Richard Roberts.

Cantees, Roberts' community and government liaison, gives him reports of
what she hears -- including rumors -- in the community and government,
Roberts has said. He claimed earlier this week that the report
referenced in the lawsuit contained a report by Cantees plus additional
information he had not seen before.

He said Cantees' report consisted of untrue rumors.

The full, unsubstantiated report now attached to the lawsuit contains
new allegations that Lindsay Roberts, Richard Roberts' wife, spent the
night in an ORU guest house with an underage male nine times, was
photographed 29 times in her car with an underage male after midnight
and after minors' curfew, visited Victory Christian School with an
underage male 81 times in 2004, smoked with an underage male at her
house and repeatedly moved her "male 16-year-old friend" into her
family's house.

The summary of the report in the first version of the lawsuit stated
that Lindsay Roberts had sent text messages to underage males late at
night. She said earlier this week that one of her daughters used her
cell phone and that the family sends cell phones home with the
daughters' friends to ensure that they get home safely.

ORU officials, including Richard Roberts, declined to comment after 5
p.m. Friday because they had not seen the amended lawsuit, a spokesman
said. The Tulsa World obtained a copy of the amended lawsuit about 5
p.m. Friday.

Gary L. Richardson, attorney for former professors John Swails, Tim
Brooker and Paulita Brooker, did not return calls to his cell phone
Friday evening. Swails referred questions to his lawyer.

Earlier in the week, Richardson said the report developed by Cantees did
not have to be true for the professors' lawsuit to be viable. The
professors claim that they were wrongfully fired or caused to resign
because they turned the report over to ORU's board of regents.

Richard Roberts said earlier in the week that Tim Brooker resigned of
his own accord and that Paulita Brooker's contract expired.

The report newly attached to the lawsuit is written in three sections,
with the latter two in a different style from the first. The first
section misspells Cantees' last name and appears to quote from a later
section.

For example, the first section, with bullets, punctuation and clear
sentences, says Lindsay Roberts had a "16-year-old male 'friend,' " and
the second section says "male 16-year-old friend" with no quotation
marks. The latter sections are riddled with misspellings, lack
punctuation and are written with phrases that run together.

The Robertses have described Cantees' writing style as consisting of
half-sentences and lacking punctuation because she is dyslexic.

New claims

The amended lawsuit also contains a new defendant -- ORU's board of
regents -- and two new legal claims.

The former professors now claim that the board has neglected to properly
oversee ORU, Richard Roberts and administrators.

The lawsuit claims that Vice Provost Jeff Ogle sexually harassed a
professor, who was allegedly forced to resign while Ogle was promoted.
Ogle has refuted the harassment claim.

The lawsuit also claims that ORU and Richard Roberts gave "a convicted
sexual deviant unrestricted access to the students of the university."
The unidentified man was a "mentor" to ORU students and had confessed to
"exposing himself to a 15-year-old boy in a school locker room."

"This further demonstrates the board's wanton and arrogant disregard for
the safety of the students under its care," the lawsuit states.

As another example of alleged negligence, the plaintiffs claim that ORU
and Richard Roberts fired the school's financial comptroller three days
after they filed their lawsuit, then ORU destroyed "voluminous materials
and documents . . . constituting spoilation of evidence," the lawsuit says.

Additionally, the ex-professors claim that ORU, the board and
administrators conspired to fire them, did so and then "instituted a
smear campaign" against them.

The lawsuit alleges that at least one conspiracy meeting happened on
ORU's plane, which is leased from Tulsa Jet Management, whose president
is Tulsa City Councilor Bill Christiansen.

The ex-professors are each still asking for actual damages in excess of
$10,000 and punitive damages in excess of $10,000.