By Tim Redmond
DECEMBER 9, 2014 – Judge Curtis Karnow will hear final arguments in the City College case this afternoon, but based on the record and the last batch of filings, he should have already reached a conclusion.
There is nothing much new in what either side will present today, except that the City Attorney’s Office will remind Karnow that less than a year ago, he explained the consequences of the decision:
“There is no question … of the harm that will be suffered if the commission follows through and terminates accreditation. … Those consequences would be catastrophic.”
The facts of the case were presented in exceptional detail by City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s team. The defense had plenty of time to rebut.
And the bottom line remains the same:
An agency that nearly everyone agrees is plagued by serious problems and a lack of accountability, run by a mean and arrogant president who seems to have set her sights on forcing City College to close or radically change, conducted a flawed review of the school and in a politically charged climate, made a decision that would shut the place down.
I’ve never seen an agency that uses public money and oversees public institutions that has so little in the way of due process. That has to be on Karnow’s mind.
I watched almost all of the trial (missed one day due to jury duty). And I can say with very little hesitation that if this were a jury trial, Herrera’s team would have already won.
Jurors don’t like nasty people, as a general rule, and the lawyers for the Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges were at time condescending to City College witnesses. Barbara Beno, the head of the ACCJC, was condescending all the time; she seemed to have no concern for the fact that her agency’s decision would cost more than 2,500 people their jobs, would send some 70,000 students out with no place to complete their education, and would devastate the local economy.
Seriously: there wasn’t a single moment in her testimony when I got the impressions she cared about the impacts of her decision.
But this is a bench trial, and it’s all in the hands of Karnow, who already knows the consequences. And he’s a stickler for process.
So there will be closing arguments today, and some post-trial motions, and at some point soon he will issue a “tentative decision,” and then he’ll let both parties object, and unless something changes his mind, we might have a final decision after the holidays.
That’s fine; this is a big deal, and it’s worth taking seriously. But it’s fair to note that Karnow is giving the ACCJC a far more fair hearing, and a far better shot at due process, than the agency ever gave City College.
If the judge believes that his own standards are fair – and it’s hard to question anything he has done so far – then his decision ought to be simple:
City College never got a fair shot. Not by the standards of this Court.
The arguments start at 1:30.
