Sexual harassment probe of university regent completed

Cy Ryan and Ed Koch

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.

The University and Community College System of Nevada said today it has completed an investigation into sexual harassment allegations made by a female employee against Regent Jack Schofield.

Appropriate action was taken, Chancellor Jane Nichols said in a statement. She said state law forbids her from commenting on the results of the findings from the Jan. 14 complaint.

Schofield said he has not seen the complaint, which he called "replete with lies," and no investigator has talked to him about it, despite the fact it was filed in mid-January.

"I'm working with my attorney Tom Ray (general counsel to the university) and my private attorney Dennis Leavitt," Schofield said.

"I hate to have lies told about me," he said.

Schofield said he has never been accused of sexual harassment in his 28 years in education and administration, or while serving in the Assembly and Senate.

A copy of the complaint obtained by the Sun today quoted an unidentified female employee as saying that on Jan. 6 shortly after noon, "someone came up behind me while I was sitting at my desk, placed their hand upon my shoulder and addressed me ...

"I turned around, surprised, and saw Regent Jack Schofield. He was uncomfortably close to me. I leaned back to establish my personal space and extended my hand to establish space between us."

The woman also alleges Schofield showed her a re-election flier, pointed out his picture and said, "Look how young and virile I was when I was 19," the complaint said,

"In the past, he has inappropriately asked me to feel his muscle ... Regent Schofield has made me feel uncomfortable in the past ... Once, he brought a woman to my boss and asked him to get her a job. Another time, he brought a guy ... and told my boss to set him up at his friend's hotel to sell his pots and pans."

The complaint says copies were sent to the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The state agency declined comment. Attempts to reach a spokesman with the federal agency were unsuccessful.

Schofield said this morning that he believed the complaint was in retaliation for his vote Nov. 20 to demote former Community College of Southern Nevada lobbyist John Cummings.

Schofield said the complaint has "all the fingerprints of John Cummings, and it is in retaliation."

Schofield was in a majority of regents who voted Nov. 20 to demote Cummings for his conduct during the 2003 Legislature, where Cummings was alleged to have swapped political favors for preferential treatment. Cummings was ordered to be returned to the classroom and, in the same closed meeting, the regents voted to return CCSN President Ron Remington to the classroom.

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval later filed a lawsuit seeking to void both demotions on the grounds that the discussions leading up to the vote violated the state's open-meeting law. Cummings is appealing the demotion and has said he has not been allowed to teach or return to the campus.

Cummings today denied he was involved in this complaint.

"I don't know that even on my best day I could get six or seven women to say these things." Cummings said. "This doesn't bear my fingerprints."

Cummings said however, "It does merit my indignation." He said the chancellor's office was told about this four months ago.