Dive Brief:
- A lawsuit against a forensic auditor cost Alabama State University $318,099, according to an open records request by AL.com.
- The university on Tuesday released the information related to its case against Forensic Strategic Solution Inc. of Montgomery, AL, which was hired by Gov. Robert Bentley to investigate financial wrongdoing at the school.
- The lawsuit, filed in California, claimed that the auditor’s report accusing the university of waste and conflicts of interest among board members was “false and misleading.” Last month, a California Superior Court judge declined to hear the case, ruling that a California court had no jurisdiction.
Dive Insight:
In a word: embarrassing. The legal bill doesn’t even include the time of the university’s in-house lawyer, Kenneth Thomas — and the board of trustees also hired a retired judge, from one of the law firms receiving legal fees, to field information requests from the forensic auditor at a rate of $375 per hour (a discount from his normal $500 rate). It isn’t clear if that spending was separate from the lawsuit’s legal bill. Board of Trustees Chairman Elton Dean resigned last week at Bentley's request, and Vice Chairman Marvin Wiggins was forced out for violating state conflict-of-interest laws. A special meeting of the board called by Bentley, also its president, will take place Aug. 8.