Thursday, October 19, 2006
The first lie
Oren Gabriel: "The Judicial Council eventually agreed that we did nothing wrong over the summer."
Well, I won't lie to you. And I won't tell you to trust me. Instead, let's go to the Judicial Council decision, and let you judge for yourself. In particular:
In conclusion, the evidence has shown that the four Student Action Executive candidates were fully aware that they could be held responsible for the actions taken by a designated representative on their behalf. And, because all four candidates were present at the ASUC v. SAES hearing, they were all witnesses to Vakil’s misleading statements to the Council. After that hearing, prior to the Ratto hearing, during the Ratto hearing, and after the Ratto hearing, not one of the four Student Action Executive candidates tried to disassociate themselves from their designated representative, Vakil. They have maintained, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Vakil did not provide the Council with misleading information in ASUC v. SAES and instead have argued that Vakil was not lying, but simply providing argumentation that need not be based on fact, and that if Vakil was lying he did not do so for their benefit. The four Student Action Executive candidates have not demonstrated, at any time, a belief that committing perjury during a judicial hearing is a serious offense. And in the case at hand, it seems that Student Action members engaged in the most serious violation of the rules for truthfulness within the Judicial Rules of Procedure, because while it has not been proven that the candidates directly colluded with Vakil to present misleading testimony during ASUC v. SAES, the decision of Ratto v. Vakil describes the unacceptable behavior of Student Action members at the Ratto hearing:
...witnesses Emilie Saleh, Joyce Liou, Jason Dixson, and Bret Manley repeatedly gave evasive answers, often verbatim repeats of answers that the previously questioned witness had given, to the plaintiff and the Council when asked questions about Vakil. Student Action members also attempted to interfere with witness testimony by whispering to each other when directed to answer controversial questions; the witnesses had not requested legal counsel. All of this compounded with the fact that the appellants made an abrupt attempt to withdraw from this appeals process after claiming a lack of Council jurisdiction, and the fact that they tried to submit evidence that had been directly tampered with, which leads us to question the originality and veracity of other evidence submitted by the appellants, points to an effort by the Student Action Executive candidates to subvert the judicial process. We believe this to be a very serious offense, but given the circumstances these candidates cannot be punished. However, Mr. Vakil is still held in contempt of Council, and as a result of his deceitful actions during ASUC v. SAES, he can never again appear before the Council per JRP 4.15.3.2.65 We condemn Vakil's actions and, as the evidence shows to be the case, the Student Action Executive candidates' knowing acceptance of Vakil's dishonesty. We maintain that had the evidence brought forth in Ratto v. Vakil about party chalking tactics been presented in ASUC v. SAES, it is likely that the Judicial Council would have arrived at a more severe judgment. Regardless, we hereby re-instate Oren Gabriel, Vishal Gupta, Joyce Liou, and Jason Chu into the 2006 ASUC Elections. The Council will soon meet to consider certification of these election results and to administer the executive oaths of office. Hmm... that doesn't sound like an admission that Student Action did nothing wrong to me. It sounds like, because of technicalities, they couldn't be punished.
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