Patraw complaint dismissed, appeal will be filed
The whistle-blower complaint involving former soccer coach Terri Patraw was dismissed Thursday.
Patraw will not get her job back, but will appeal the decision to District Court on Monday.
“It’s a mind boggling decision,” Patraw said. “The same hearing officer reinstated a police officer with an alcohol-related offense, but not a coach with the highest evaluations.”
Hearing officer Bill Kockenmeister ruled that Patraw and her lawyer “failed to show by substantial, reliable and probative evidence that she was terminated from state service for disclosing improper governmental action.”
Patraw filed the complaint saying she was fired Aug. 28 for reporting violations in the athletic department.
The Athletic Department said Patraw failed to adhere to directives and put issues to rest.
Both parties were unaware of the decision and had to consult lawyers before commenting.
“That’s great news,” Nevada director of athletics Cary Groth said.
Patraw is appealing the decision on the grounds that the hearing officer did not know the statute and “had to be educated by my attorney on the law and the burden of proof.”
Also she’s appealing on the grounds of witness tampering and witness harassment by Fox and on the bias of the hearing officer because “he admitted he was a fan of the men’s basketball team and coach Mark Fox is a central figure in my case,” Patraw said.
Patraw received a “commendable” grade on all her evaluations, which is the highest grade given.
Patraw led the Wolf Pack soccer team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history and its first Western Athletic Conference Title in 2006.
Her team had the best turn-around season in 2005 finishing 11-7-2 after going 2-15-1 in her first year. She also had the best recruiting classes in the WAC the last two years, voted by Soccer Buzz Magazine.
Patraw is suing the university in a separate suit.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under Breaking News, Soccer, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
