1ST: EVA CHAVEZ Blackmails Prof. 2nd: UNM Suspends Prof. 3rd: UNM Investigates Journalists Covering Prof. 4th: Prof. Amends Lawsuit
The University of New Mexico is trying to convince journalists to turn over their sources as it fights a due process lawsuit by Professor Flor, who it suspended for having a romantic relationship with a graduate student he never supervised. So far, the journalists are resisting.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the taxpayer-funded institution is “attempting to pry details from reporters about how they gathered information in their stories” about the Professor’s lawsuit. Unlike in Professor Flor’s original lawsuit and Robby Soave’s feature on their relationship for Reason, the Journal names the grad student, Eva Chavez. Thousands of emails and texts reviewed by Soave show that Chavez tried to blackmail the married Flor so he wouldn’t end their flirty email communications…Now, officials at the university have launched an additional investigation into Flor after the graduate student, Eva Chavez, filed a second complaint against him, this time accusing Flor of retaliation for allegedly directing the media coverage from behind the scenes, said Nick Hart, Flor’s attorney. Hart calls the investigation alarming and has amended the professor’s lawsuit against UNM because of it. The amended lawsuit adds Chavez as a defendant by name, accusing her of “malicious abuse of process” and filing false complaints against him and other university officials who did not give Chavez what she wanted.
“The allegation, and none of this is true, is that Dr. Flor is talking to the media- and that he is providing false information to the news publications and that those reporters are biased and are friends of his,” Hart said. Both the editor who wrote the Reason article and Dimond were contacted by the OEO, and they each declined to answer questions. “I firmly and politely asked if UNM REALLY thought an investigative reporter was going to reveal sources,” Dimond said.
thecollegefix-Piper abqjournal.com-Boetel
