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DENA BOWERS APPEAL SET FOR JANUARY-C'VILLE WEEKLY, OCTOBER 30, 2007

Posted: Tuesday October 30, 2007

Dena Bowers’ Appeal Set for January

Lawsuit like seeing the backside of good restaurant, says attorney

BY DAVID MOLTZ

In a $1 million lawsuit nearly two years in the making, the appeal of Dena Bowers’ case against UVA is set to begin oral arguments in January 2008.

Bowers seeking $1 million in e-mail controversy case
Dena Bowers, a former recruiter in the University’s personnel department, was fired in late 2005 after a message, sent from her work e-mail account with attachments from the NAACP, was widely distributed among UVA staff. The attachments were critical of potential changes to the University’s pay scale as a result of the chartered restructuring plan that it was considering at the time. Restructuring legislation passed in July 2006.

Bowers’ lawsuit alleges that UVA violated her First Amendment rights by firing her in retaliation against the statements found in the attachments to her e-mail. It also alleges that she was not given proper due process when she was not told of the charges against her before she was fired.

In March, U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon stripped the case of nearly all the First Amendment claims. The only charge remaining for Bowers’ attorney, Deborah Wyatt, to pursue was whether she had the opportunity to speak on the day of her firing. Calling this the least important of the claims against the University, Wyatt filed an appeal to pursue the dropped claims with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

“This whole experience was like seeing the backside of a really good restaurant,” says Wyatt of investigating UVA in the Bowers case. “It’s a good restaurant, but when you go back there, you see how they use some rotten eggs, and they reuse this and pick something from the floor. I’ve really seen that yuck stuff.”

Dena Bowers’ fate is now in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Since the start of this case, Wyatt says she has heard from a number of University employees who claim that the school, because of positions they have taken or speeches they have given, has treated them poorly. As she has not taken on any additional cases, Wyatt has put her full professional concentration on this lawsuit. She, however, still says she plans to retire after it is finally decided.

“All we want to do is win,” says Wyatt, stressing the importance of the case. “Even if it’s five years from now. We want to win.”

After the appeal goes to the Fourth Circuit Court, the judge can either decide to agree with the lower District Court’s decision, ending the case, or rule in favor of Bowers. Both sides completed filing briefs in September and are prepared for the upcoming hearing, according to Wyatt. Now it’s just a waiting game until arguments start early next year.

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