A new lawsuit has been filed against the University of California, Irvine for their handling of a case involving a sex case in which an Irvine Law Student was wrongfully convicted and sent to jail. This comes as the state of California is being sued for refusing to stop Sheriff Sale from detaining the student who remains at large. The suit names the University of California, Irvine and Lawrence Journal-World Media as defendants. The suit was filed by Paul Gerspach, a professor at the school of law.
The complaint reads that Gerspach was a plaintiff in a “juries lawsuit class action lawsuit” which was a class action lawsuit against the University of California, Irvine.
The complaint says he “was wrongfully dismissed from that case for attempting to file an injury lawsuit.” He was arrested after being picked up by police outside of his residence. In the arrest, officers took into custody Gerspach’s pregnant wife, as well as her child. Gerspach’s wife suffered an injury when one of the police officers used a chemical agent while arresting her son. She claims that this caused her to suffer permanent injuries that have left her unable to ever work again.
The complaint further reads that Gerspach was the subject of a Los Angeles Times article which referred to him as a “UCLA professor specializing in media law, government regulations, and public accountability.”
The article described his work as a contributing writer to the “Boulder Daily Miner,” a publication widely regarded as a left-leaning think tank. Gerspach is also listed as a contributor to “The New York Times” and “The Weekly Standard.” The Daily Monitor newspaper of Washington, D.C. listed him as one of the “Syndicated columnists” for that paper.
The lawsuit was sparked by a motion picture producer who was producing a film on the Life During Wartime program at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Gerspach was among the interviewees for that project who were denied access to the project due to what he called “legitimate concerns,” which were according to Gerspach, “based upon the fact that Gerspach is a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration.” Gerspach contends that these “revelations” were true and, “On numerous occasions throughout the production of the film, he was detained by both police and security personnel.” The discovery further reads that Gerspach was taken to a room where he was searched and his personal belongings were taken from him. Gerspach was then taken to a lock up facility and was held incommunicado for seven days.
During this period of time, Gerspach was subjected to continued harassment via phone calls, text messages, emails, and physical confrontations.
After being held in this manner, Gerspach claimed that he suffered from insomnia, was unable to sleep, and had trouble concentrating. He was diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was diagnosed as a borderline personality type with narcissistic tendencies. After retaining the services of an attorney, Gerspach filed a complaint against both the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army, charging them with violating his constitutional rights, falsely accusing him of war crimes, intentionally exaggerating symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress, and acting in an unprofessional manner.
This is but one of the lawsuits and issues surrounding Gerspach that are currently before us.
There are others that are pending, including one involving a claim that arose from Gerspach’s participation as an immediate past president of the Knights of Columbus International, Inc. As I have written elsewhere, I believe that there is a significant public interest in these cases and that they should be resolved by the regular members of our board of directors. Alternately, I believe that a study by Dr. James Rotton, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General and Director of the National Security Agency, would be in order in light of this issue.
