Medical Student Avoids Academic Misconduct Dismissal Based on Forensic Review
The student affairs dean at a prominent medical school associated with a South Atlantic state university notified a second-year student of charges that the student had cheated by accessing outside electronic materials during an online exam. The student learned in an informal conference with the dean that the testing center's exam-monitoring software showed that the student had gone outside of the program during the exam in a suspicious electronic activity that the school construed as cheating. The school also reviewed the student's electronic answers, concluding that they represented copying or close paraphrasing of online materials. Maintaining his utter innocence and yet unaware of how to prove it, the student retained the Lento Law Firm. The firm promptly employed its forensic consultant to examine the student's computer and software account and to procure and review the school's electronic evidence. The school at first resisted disclosing the electronic evidence but relented when the law firm documented the consultant's credentials, including consulting and testifying for schools in misconduct cases. The consultant's review confirmed anomalies in the software and school review rather than any inappropriate action by the accused student. The law firm used the consultant's report and reputation to negotiate a dismissal of the pending charge at a resolution conference that also involved the school's outside retained counsel. The key to the student's success was the skill and reputation of the law firm's forensic consultant.
Undergraduate Pre-Med Student Avoids Title IX Misconduct Dismissal Based on Forensic Evidence
A pre-med program at a large Midwest public university notified a second-year student of Title IX charges based on the complainant's allegation that the student had sexually assaulted the complainant after the complainant broke off their romantic relationship. The student denied the charges at an early informal resolution conference at which the Title IX coordinator clearly indicated a strong likelihood that the university would find in the complainant's favor under the university's preponderance of the evidence standard. The student retained the Lento Law Firm to investigate actual and alleged communications between the student and the complainant shortly before and immediately after the incident. The student admitted that the complainant had broken off the relationship but reported that the complainant, drunk at the time, had nonetheless come on to the student, who had instead left the dormitory premises, even though the complainant had threatened retaliation if the student did not continue the relationship. The student's text messages tended to corroborate that account. The complainant, though, had presented contrary text messages from just before and after the incident, tending to corroborate the complainant's account. The law firm requested and received the university's permission to have the law firm's forensics consultant examine the complainant's messaging devices. That review confirmed that the purported messages were later fabrications prepared to corroborate the complainant's false account. The university dismissed the charges against the student and instead pursued charges against the complainant for misusing the disciplinary procedures. The key to the student's success was the forensic consultation.
Graduate Student Avoids Discipline After Handwriting Expert Identifies Forgery
The disciplinary official at a small private college in the Northeast notified a graduate student in philosophy, accusing the student of defrauding the college of goods and services. The charges, threatening the student's dismissal and demanding restitution, alleged that the student had procured medical care, access to recreational facilities, and meals without paying for those services after a bank and credit service refused to honor payment as fraudulent activity. Although the matter appeared that it could involve a complex case of identity theft, the disciplinary official recommended that the student retain the Lento Law Firm for assistance with forensic services. Once retained, the law firm's forensic consultant examined institutional and financial records, including alleged signatures of the student to procure credit, goods, and services. The consultant's handwriting analysis confirmed a likely forgery. The consultant produced a detailed report with images showing the anomalies confirming the forgery. The law firm then used that report and the accused student's affidavit and other documentation to show that the student had not received the involved goods and services and was not involved in any way in the fraudulent activity. The college's disciplinary official reviewed the law firm's presentation, including the consultant's report at a resolution conference. The official voluntarily dismissed the charges and expunged the student's school records of the allegation. The key to success was the high quality and objectivity of the forensic consultant's report.
High School Senior Avoids Expulsion over Assault Based on Forensic Medical Review and Report
The principal of a suburban high school in the West Coast's Bay Area suspended a high school senior for physically assaulting a teacher, removed the student from the school, and threatened to make the suspension permanent. The student, within two months of graduating, had already gained acceptance to the honors program at a prominent local state university. Dismissal and delay in graduation would have prevented the student's university matriculation. The student's parents promptly retained the Lento Law Firm. Investigation showed that the student had in fact, shoved the teacher and that the teacher had fallen backward over a chair. But investigation further showed that the teacher had yelled at and aggressively approached the student, even though the student was attending the high school under an individualized education plan for mental impairments relating to autism or Asperger's syndrome. The law firm thus promptly invoked the student's federal right to a manifestation determination to show that the assault was due to the student's disability, which the teacher had failed to reasonably accommodate. To prepare for the hearing, the law firm helped the parents retain a medical forensic consultant to review the student's diagnosis and IEP, and witness statements. The consultant opined in a written report that the unaccommodated disability had more probably than not contributed to the event, which would not have happened if the teacher had complied with the accommodations not to yell or confront the student in an intimidating fashion. The manifestation determination team agreed with the report and dismissed the misconduct charge. The student returned to high school without a record of discipline and graduated with his classmates, ready to attend his university program.
Medical Resident Avoids Non-Renewal Based on Forensic Handwriting Analysis
The director of a medical residency program at a large urban Midwest hospital accused a medical resident of stealing prescription drugs from the hospital's pharmacy. The director based the allegations on pharmacy logs and related records allegedly showing the resident's signature and handwriting in connection with frequent entries that tended to correlate with the missing drugs. The resident denied the charges to no avail, given the unusually frequent and highly suspicious handwritten entries. The director suspended the resident and threatened to terminate the residency, non-renew the resident for the residency's second year, and refer the matter to criminal authorities. The resident thus promptly retained the Lento Law Firm. The law firm obtained for forensic handwriting analysis copies of and access to the originals of the pharmacy logs and related suspicious records allegedly having the resident's handwriting and signature. Close forensic analysis showed the writing to be obvious forgeries. The law firm's other investigation produced circumstantial evidence of a hospital staff member's involvement in the forgeries. The law firm helped the resident present that evidence to the program director and the hospital's general counsel. When the staff member suspect quit and disappeared after notice of the investigation, the hospital reinstated the resident and subsequently renewed the residency for its second year. The key to success was the quality and promptness of the forensic handwriting analysis.
Medical Student Avoids Dismissal on Pornography Charges After Computer Forensic Review
The dean of a small private medical school located in a Southern Border state notified a fourth-year student of misconduct charges based on suspected search, viewing, possession, and transmission of pornography on school accounts and computers. The allegations arose when another student discovered pornography on a device in the school's computer lab, open under the accused student's email and web browser accounts. The school's IT department had already investigated the matter, finding that a user had searched, viewed, downloaded, and transmitted pornography during school hours and clinical assignments using the accused student's account. That activity would have violated the school's professional conduct and computer use policies. The student denied any such activity and suggested fraudulent use of the student's accounts, but the dean proceeded nonetheless with the charges. The student retained the Lento Law Firm to help disprove the charges. The law firm employed a computer forensic consultant to examine the student's own devices, confirming no pornography-related use. Working closely with the school's IT department, the forensic consultant further examined the school devices and accounts. Forensic analysis of evidence from that review showed that the accused student would have been on other devices at other locations at the time of most of the alleged wrongful activity. The law firm helped to present those conclusions, with which the school's IT department tended to agree, at an informal resolution conference. The dean dismissed the charges after concluding that the evidence pointed to the involvement of a different student misusing the accused student's accounts and passwords. The key to success was the quality of the computer forensic review.
Graduate Students Avoid Academic Misconduct Discipline After Forensic Review Exonerates
The dean of student affairs for a prominent graduate program at a public university in a Rocky Mountain state notified several students of academic misconduct charges relating to a cheating scandal. The notice alleged that the students had received, used for undue advantage, and transmitted without authorization certain exam questions and model answers that a student had secretly obtained by hacking a professor's account. The student hacker had admitted to the misconduct when another student to whom the hacker had offered the stolen materials turned the hacker in. Several of the students receiving the notice of charges maintained that the hacker had made false accusations of academic misconduct to mitigate disciplinary sanctions. Several maintained that they never received any unauthorized materials or offer of materials, while others maintained that they had ignored the hacker's offer. When the dean of student affairs refused at a preliminary conference to dismiss the charges and instead blamed the students for failing to come forward like the student reporting the hacker had done, those students retained the Lento Law Firm. The law firm first confirmed that the program's student code of conduct only encouraged, without requiring, reporting another student's suspected misconduct. The firm then retained a computer forensic consultant to examine the laptop computers of the involved students. The consultant concluded that some had not received any electronic offer, while others had received a communication but not opened its attachment or replied to the offer. The law firm helped the involved students present that evidence at an informal hearing, following which the dean dismissed the charges against those students. The key to success was the on-point computer forensic review.
Medical Student Avoids Misconduct Discipline After Drug Reaction, on Forensic Review
A prominent medical school at a large public Northwest Coast university charged a medical student with providing clinical services and engaging in unprofessional behavior while under the influence of drugs. The student had, in fact, suffered a severe drug reaction while on clinical rounds after the student's treating psychiatrist had changed the student's psychoactive drug prescriptions. The student had become drowsy, combative, confused, and unsteady in the clinic, to the point that the supervising physician had sent the student home with a fellow student's help. The student retained the Lento Law Firm to challenge the disciplinary notice. With the student's treating psychiatrist reluctant to get involved and admit any carelessness in the changed prescription, the law firm instead retained a psychiatrist forensic consultant. The consultant prepared an evaluation and report of the likely drug interaction that had produced the aberrant behavior. The student had already returned to the treating psychiatrist for further medication adjustment to forestall a repeat incident. On that evidence, the hearing panel dismissed the charges with the disciplinary official's agreement. The key to success was the law firm's ability to identify and retain qualified forensic consultant services.
