UNLV told to rehire fired professor

Bill Gang

Tuesday, April 20, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

A professor who taught at UNLV from 1974 until he was booted out in 1993 has been given his job back by a District Court jury and awarded more than $300,000 in back pay.

The case that stemmed from a lawsuit filed by 63-year-old Richard Sutton could have been avoided if UNLV officials had simply followed through with a 1993 deal, Sutton's attorney Adam Levine said after Friday's verdict.

Testimony in District Judge Mark Gibbons' courtroom indicated that Sutton had received two years of unsatisfactory ratings by superiors in the university's business school, which is grounds for termination under university rules.

A hearing for that purpose had been set, but a deal was cut that would let Sutton resign his tenured job in exchange for the promise that he would run the business information office for the college for one year, with no guarantees after that.

But Levine said Sutton wouldn't sign the actual contract because it had language that would have allowed UNLV to fire him during that year.

Levine, who represented Sutton along with attorney Daniel Marks, said Sutton had tried to change the wording but university officials refused the handwritten changes -- inserting a page with the original language into the agreement.

When Sutton wouldn't sign, he was ordered to leave UNLV.

The lawsuit resulted and after six years -- during which he earned a living cleaning pools -- the jury ruled that UNLV breached the agreement.

Rather than paying Sutton for the one-year contract, UNLV was ordered to reimburse Sutton for six years of lost salary as a professor, plus interest and benefits. He was also reinstated into his old job, although the university can again try to terminate him because of the unsatisfactory ratings.

Levine said the ratings were the result of Sutton being transferred from the political science department -- his area of expertise -- to the business department.

The attorney said that should UNLV again seek termination, Sutton will "contest it and expects to prevail."

Levine said that during the court battle, Sutton had to start his pool cleaning service because there was no available employment as a professor.

"The university system is the only game in town," Levine said.

UNLV officials had no comment on the judgment.