Ed and jpl,
How do supporters assess the forged PhD issue as it bears on damages?
In Defendant’s Exhibit 49, Dr. Hatfill admitted that he did not receive his PhD and submitted a forged diploma in connection with getting his job at NIH.
Question: Would Louisiana State University have grounds for reversing its decision to hire upon discovery of this fraud? Answer: Yes. University Presidents are forced to resign upon plagiarizing a speech. Academia lives and breathes credentials. Forging a diploma is not puffery. It is fraud. Employers should check credentials upon hiring. Here, Dr. Hatfill was working at Detrick, as I vaguely recall, on ebola. The reason to avoid fraud in life is precisely so that when false accusations fly people will give you the benefit of the doubt. Similarly, if in fact a silencer was found (was it?), did he have a BATF permit? Is a silencer lawful in Maryland? One reason not to possess a silencer, if unlawful in the particular state and not the subject of a BATF permit, is so that people won’t think of you as a dangerous character.
Of course, this is not relevant to narrow issues of whether a Privacy Act claim survives summary judgment. But it is relevant to damages — because Dr. Hatfill is claiming the loss of the LSU job as proximately caused by the leaks rather than the forgery of the diploma. Do you think, if the government is found to have violated the Privacy Act, the loss of the LSU job is fairly included in damages? What if LSU claims that they made their decision for independent reasons, such as discovery he had falsely claimed to have a PhD and submitted a forged diploma?
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
STEVEN J. HATFILL, M.D.,
Plaintiff,
v.
JOHN ASHCROFT et al.,
Defendants.
No. CIV-A-03-1793(RBW)
(Judge Walton)
Washington, D.C.
Friday, May 5, 2006
Videotaped deposition of
STEVEN J. HATFILL
were not awarded a Ph.D.?
A Somewhere around 1998.
approximate there.
***
Q What did you learn in 1998?
A I’m not 98 or 99, I’m not
Possibly — anyway, I learned that I
did not receive it.
Q And how did you come to that
understanding?
A An exchange of e-mails with Rhodes
University.
Q And what did those e-mails say?
A I don’t recall the specifics.
Q In any job applications that you’ve
submitted, have you ever attached a copy of a
diploma?
A Yes, on one.
Q Which one?
A Nationa! Institutes of Health.
Q And that dip!oma states that you
have a Ph.D.?
A Yes. Don’t know what was going
through my head.
Q Is that document a forgery?
A Yes.
Q Take me through the steps in which
you created that forged dip!oma.
A I don’t recall, it’s a decade ago.
I was talking to one of the guys in the pub
and he said he was a computer guy. He said
I’!l whip one up for you.
Q When did you have the discussion
with the guy in the pub?
A While I was at Oxford.
Q So the diploma was created in 1997
A I don’t recall a specific time.
Q Other than the NIH job application,
did you ever submit that forged dip!oma in
your job applications for any other position?
A Not to my recollection.
It's seen as irrelevant. It has nothing to do with violations of the Privacy Act. The lawsuit is ONLY about government violations of the Privacy Act.
I'm really amazed at how many people just work themselves into some kind of hatred for Dr. Hatfill, and when it appears that he's innocent of the anthrax mailings, they STILL want to punish him for something --- anything. It's really creepy.
The guy was apparently a blowhard. He liked to make himself seem more important than he really was. Most people don't see that as a good reason to destroy his life forever.