Monday, April 27, 1998 | 11:19 a.m.
Eric Coyle, who next month is expected to earn five degrees simultaneously from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had a closed-door argument Feb. 4 with Provost Douglas Ferraro over publicity about his accomplishments. Afterward, Coyle accused Ferraro of grabbing his left shoulder twice and cursing at him during their heated exchange.
Coyle returned to Ferraro's office two days later with a hidden tape recorder and said he recorded a generic apology from the provost. Ferraro has repeatedly denied grabbing Coyle.
In a letter this month to the "campus community," Ferraro told colleagues he had been cleared by the attorney general's office of the battery accusations but offered a cryptic apology for any uncivil conduct on his part.
Coyle asked the attorney general's office to investigate his run-in with Ferraro, and the university asked its new administrative code officer to investigate Coyle's accusations.
"On the battery charge, we didn't find sufficient evidence to prosecute the case," Bob Harmon, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said last week.
Ferraro also was cleared by administrative code officer Marc Cardinalli.
archive
