State board OKs settlements

Wednesday, June 14, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A former math professor at UNLV will receive an $830,000 settlement for being fired in 1990 without a required pre-termination hearing, the state Board of Examiners decided Tuesday.

Michael Golberg was terminated while on extended sick leave. His contract with UNLV provided him with due process rights including the right to a hearing.

Tom Ray, general counsel for the University and Community College System of Nevada, said Golberg suffered from diverticulitis and had used up his sick and catastrophic leave. He was put on disability but could not draw benefits while he was employed.

Ray said UNLV felt it was for "his best interest" that he be terminated to make him eligible for benefits. But the school never gave him a hearing on his firing.

Goldberg sought $1 million, but it was negotiated to $830,000 with UNLV and the state each contributing half.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, chairman of the examiners board, chided UNLV for agreeing to a settlement before submitting the claim to the examiners board.

He told Ray to "carry the message back" to university officials that they must get approval from the board before agreeing to any settlement.

The board also voted to pay $175,000 to a mentally ill inmate at Southern Desert Correctional Center who was beaten and raped by a violent prisoner. Michael Oden originally filed a claim for $997,000, but the amount was negotiated down. Attorney fees for Oden already exceed $300,000. Oden claimed he should have been segregated from the violent inmate.

James Woods is being paid $15,000 for his false arrest in Indiana. The Nevada Highway Patrol issued a warrant for Woods but described him as a white man born in October 1960. The actual suspect was a black man born in June 1952.

Guinn said the data on the arrest warrant "is so different that I don't know how they (the patrol) could be that far off. The color and the ages are far different. Someone suggested Woods wasn't happy with his jail time in Indiana and Guinn replied, "I don't blame him."

The board approved a $50,000 settlement for Ronald Schaab, who was injured when a state Transportation Department vehicle driven by Tim Ruguleiski struck him in Las Vegas. Rosie Frausto is going to receive $12,500 for injuries suffered when her car was struck from behind by Highway Patrol Trooper Seong Lee.

Beverly Ann Johnson will receive a settlement of $17,573 for injuries suffered when hit by a state van driven by Jason Nelson of the state Division of Child and Family Services in Las Vegas.

Prison correctional officer Michael Scheel is going to receive $60,000 to pay his lawyer who defended him in a civil suit filed by an inmate at the prison in Ely, who claimed he was beaten by the guard.

The attorney general's office had initially filed a criminal charge against Scheel, but he was acquitted.