A ruling is expected later this month in the case of Angelica Hale v. Emporia State University.
Trial began Jan. 8 and lasted two days in federal court in Topeka. Hale says ESU, as well as former president Jackie Vietti, former School of Library and Information Management dean Gwen Alexander and current provost David Cordle, retaliated against her for reporting racial discrimination and for protesting racism at ESU. Hale also contends ESU, Alexander, Cordle and Vietti refused to renew her contract and published false and misleading information about her.
Hale’s case is separate but related to a lawsuit filed against ESU by her husband, Melvin Hale, which essentially makes the same arguments against ESU as well as Vietti, Cordle, other current administrators like Kevin Johnson, Ray Lauber, Dow and Gary Wyatt and former administrator Judy Anderson. Both Angelica and Melvin Hale are seeking $10 million from the university in their respective cases.
A ruling is expected next Wednesday.
Both were at one time employed by Emporia State, with Melvin Hale serving as a professor in the SLIM department and Angelica Hale as an assistant to Alexander. The couple says it found a racial epithet on a notebook in April 2014, and the person the Hales accuse of writing the slur in question now has a trial date in a case against the Hales. Debra Rittgers, now an administrative assistant in the Teachers College, accuses the Hales of libel or slander and is seeking $75,000 in damages.
Trial in Rittgers v. Hale is set to begin March 25.
