A University of Memphis law professor appointed by the U of M as hearing officer has ruled that the U of M’s choice to terminate Curt Guenther, a former director of communications with 19 years of employment, was justified.
This was the result of a three-day wrongful termination hearing, which took place in December and January. Guenther maintains that he was fired because of age and gender. The U of M released the results Tuesday, after 90 days of deliberation by the hearing officer — the maximum amount of time allowed under law.
Guenther’s lawyer, Hite McLean, said this ruling would not derail plans to move forward with a discrimination lawsuit in Shelby County Circuit Court. According to a 34-page ruling, Guenther’s poor job performance is what led Linda Bonnin, then his supervisor and U of M vice president of communications, to fire him.
The ruling was made by hearing officer Jodie Wilson — a current assistant professor of law seeking tenure at the U of M. She acted as judge and jury for the appeal.
Conflicting Testimony
Both the university and Guenther’s witnesses gave testimony that came under heavy scrutiny during and after the hearing. However, while Wilson disregarded one of Guenther’s witnesses completely, she gave credence to one of the U of M’s witnesses, despite his inconsistences.
Wilson rejected Guenther’s claim that he was fired as a result of discrimination, partly because she did not believe the testimony of one of Guenther’s witnesses, Jennifer Rorie, a former student intern in Bonnin’s office and former Helmsman reporter. Rorie testified that Bonnin said she “fired her director of communication services.”
Rorie also testified that Bonnin said she “wanted to hire a younger fresher feminine face … to fill the position.”
Wilson ruled that it was unlikely that Bonnin would make that statement to a student reporter. Wilson dismissed all of Rorie’s testimony because she said it conflicted with the “underlying facts.”
“The evidence demonstrates a clear conflict between the statements that Ms. Rorie testified to and the underlying facts,” Wilson wrote in her decision. “This calls Ms. Rorie’s memory into question and counsels against reliance on Ms. Rorie’s testimony.”
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In the claims of Guenther’s alleged incompetency, Wilson did not reject the testimony of the university’s witness, Bob Eoff, a former vice president of communications at the U of M.
Eoff ’s testimony seemed to conflict with the events surrounding the on-campus murder of a U of M football player. Eoff testified that Guenther was negligent in his duties on that day.
However, an investigation by The Daily Helmsman strongly indicated that Eoff ’s testimony was either dishonest or remembered incorrectly.
Wilson acknowledged that “telephone records” and other witness testimony disputed Eoff ’s claims.
However, she attributed the inconsistences to a lapse of memory.
“Based on the demeanor of the witnesses and the fact that the event occurred eight years before the hearing, in this case, it cannot be concluded that any witness was intentionally testifying falsely,” Wilson wrote.
Eoff ’s testimony is used in several places in Wilson’s ruling to support the university’s argument.
Evidence against Guenther
The university maintained it had a right to fire any employee without cause. However, Wilson wrote that the university had plenty of cause to terminate Guenther.
In several performance reviews spanning a decade, Guenther was given low marks. These records, written by Bonnin the same woman who fired him, were used by the university as evidence against Guenther. Guenther did not make supervisors aware of projects he was working on, according to a 2003 review.
He did not run “things by others before” sending them out to the public, according to a 2010 review.
Bonnin complained that she did not know what Guenther was working on and that he needed to communicate with her better, according to a 2012 and 2013 review. Guenther did not refute these claims at the time they were written. Wilson’s ruling relied heavily on these reviews.
Witnesses for Guenther
Guenther produced two witnesses supporting his competency. Derek Myers, assistant chief of the U of M Police Department, said Guenther was always available by phone when he needed him. William Porter, former associate
vice president for student affairs at the U of M, testified the same way. However, Wilson ruled that their testimony did not hold much weight since they were not his supervisors nor did they evaluate Guenther’s work.
