Several friends have asked longtime Alabama attorney Donald Watkins why he felt it necessary to publish investigative reports about sexual misconduct among high-ranking officials at Alabama A&M University (AAMU). Watkins cites a number of answers to that question, but No. 1 on the list seems to be this: Reporting on such issues puts them in the public realm and should enhance the chances that future victims will achieve justice, perhaps by holding members of the school's board of trustees individually accountable for failing to prevent wrongs and limit damages that they had every reason to know were taking place on their watch.
Watkins addresses his friends' concerns in a post today at donaldwatkins.com, under the headline "The Importance of Exposing Alleged Sexual Predators Who Roam the Campus of Alabama A&M University":
After I exposed the nest of alleged sexual predators in the top ranks of Alabama A&M University's administration (past and present) in a series of recent investigative articles, several male friends of mine in the world of historically black colleges and universities asked me privately why was it necessary to do so. These friends are very familiar with the personal histories of Trustee Kevin Ball, President Daniel K. Wims, Provost John D. Jones, and former Alabama A&M Assistant Vice President for Finance Norman E. Jones. They also know them as longtime “womanizers.”
As detailed in the articles I published about these men, their personal histories and allegations of their unwanted sexual advances against women subordinates (and one male) were fairly easy for me to discover and document. In two instances, there are written findings of actual sexual misconduct. Out of respect for the victims' privacy, I only published the least graphic written report.
What is more, the job applications and resumes of Daniel Wims, John Jones, and Norman Jones were scrubbed and sanitized in a way that was intended to prevent background checkers from discovering their alleged propensities to prey upon female members of the university community. Fortunately, I am specially trained to look for evidence of sexual misconduct and other improprieties, even when it is obscured by incomplete, sanitized, and grossly misleading resumes.
Watkins then provides an in-depth explanation for his reporting:
First, I wanted to alert women faculty, staff, and students on campus about who these men really are. I have looked beyond their fancy titles and exposed what, in my view, is the documented dark side of their male being.
Second, I wanted to make it easy for the next victim of their alleged sexual aggression to be able to hold Alabama A&M trustees personally liable in a court of law for any future act of sexual harassment that may be committed by these men on the university's campus. By outing them now, the next alleged sexual abuse victim of these men may be able to make a sustainable legal claim against each university trustee in his/her individual capacity.
The future victim(s) will be able to readily establish that Alabama A&M's trustees had actual knowledge about the alleged propensity of these men to engage in unwanted sexual advances, or they reasonably should have known this information (based upon my articles and other published reports).
Any experienced trial lawyer with “walking around sense” could have found the information I published in my articles and should have reported this information to university trustees. For whatever reason, this did not happen before I published my articles about these men.
What I also learned about Alabama A&M is this truism: The board of trustees, as a whole, is so weak and compromised that most of the trustees did not want to know the truth about these men or their personal histories.
What is worse, it is an open secret in Huntsville that President Daniel Wims is engaged in an ongoing "special personal relationship" with one of the university's trustees. The board of trustees has turned a blind eye to this inappropriate relationship.
Now that my articles are in the public domain, the next alleged victim of these men has a realistic chance to get true justice in the court system.
In short, AAMU trustees might face serious financial exposure if instances of sexual misconduct continue, producing more victims. Writes Watkins:
Additionally, by exposing the alleged acts of fraud that were committed in scrubbing and sanitizing the resumes of Daniel Wims, John Jones, and Norman Jones in order for them to get appointments to their current jobs, this may prevent the ability of trustees to access insurance proceeds and/or taxpayer funds to pay (a) potential sexual-abuse court judgments against them, in their individual capacity; and (b) any attorney's fees awarded to the victim.
What is more, the next sexual-abuse victim could reasonably argue in court that each man procured his university job under false pretenses, which is now a situation that is actually known to the university.
It appears that nothing will change on Alabama A&M’s campus in the zone of sexual harassment until the next sexual-abuse victim wins her/his case against university trustees, when they are sued in their individual capacity. That’s when the situation will get real for them. Until then, the board of trustees, led by board chairman Roderick D. Watts, will simply look the other way.
Watkins has written previously about cases of apparent sexual predation, especially in the workplace, and has found the behavior so disturbing that it merits little in the way of tolerance:
I have NEVER cared to develop, nurture, or coddle a personal or professional relationship with a known sexual predator. That’s not my cup of tea. I have zero tolerance for them.
Wherever I find a nest of sexual predators who are feasting off taxpayer dollars, I try to remove the predators from the government payroll. When I exposed Gov. Robert Bentley (Alabama), U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller (Montgomery), U.S. District Judge Jack Camp (Atlanta), and U.S. District Judge Dean Bertram (Birmingham) for their sexual misdeeds, not one person in the state's Black community asked me a single question about why I exposed these men.
Of course, all of the men in this group are white. All of them lost their jobs. Two of them were subsequently charged with and convicted of crimes that arose from their sexual escapades.
I do not have a double standard for sexual predators -- a strict one for White predators and a non-existent one for Black predators. I have one standard and it is applied uniformly – I hold all sexual predators fully accountable for their misconduct, without hesitation or reservation. I do not care what color they are, or what job title they hold.
Finally, no one has disputed the factual information or documents presented in the articles I published on Kevin Ball, Norman E. Jones, John D. Jones, and Daniel Wims. They simply cannot do so.
Stay tuned! Much more is coming your way.
No comments:
Post a Comment