Guilty Before Proven Innocent

On or about Tuesday, July 18, 2006, Santa Monica College President Chui L. Tsang wrote me the following email:

I have reviewed your letter dated June 29, 2006. I am aware that the District is awaiting contact from your attorney in order to set a mutually agreeable date and time for your suspension hearing. Please be advised that under Administrative Regulation 4410, if the Appeal Committee upholds your suspension, you have the right to appeal that decision to me. Thus, at this point in time it would be inappropriate for me to review in detail your comments concerning the underlying reason(s) for your suspension.

Chui L. Tsang
Superintendent/President

On or about July 20, 2006, I responded to him via email and certified mail. Although President Tsang had until the close of business today to either set aside my suspension or to provide me an appeal hearing date by no later than Monday, July 31, 2006, he failed to respond. I even sent him a reminder email earlier this afternoon in which I wrote the following:

Dear President Tsang,

I emailed you a response to your last email yesterday regarding my suspension. Although I respectfully asked that you respond by this afternoon, I have not heard back from you. For your convenience and reference, the email and certified letter can be found online here in Adobe PDF format:

http://www.vtutorials.com/clients/des/savesmc/appeal/pdf/dmct_07-20-06_letter.pdf

I eagerly await your response. You can contact me via this email or at my phoenix genesis hotmail email, from which I originally emailed you and from which you previously responded to me.

Very Truly Yours,

Des Manttari /s/

Despite my reminder, sent from a second email address so that President Tsang could not allege he never received my email from the original address, he still did not respond. At the eleventh hour, I sent an email response to Vice President of Planning and Development, Robert Sammis. You can read my email response and his original email below. I have yet to hear a response from Mr. Sammis. Each day that goes by, SMC is in gross violation of my due process rights. Eventually, it will be necessary to seek outside court intervention to enforce my rights.

-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

---------------------- MY RECENT EMAIL TO ROBERT SAMMIS -----------------

ATTENTION: ROBERT SAMMIS
SANTA MONICA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

RE: Third Request for Dismissal of Wrongful Suspension

July 21, 2006

Dear Mr. Sammis,

I have responded as of yesterday via email to SMC President Chui L. Tsang via email and certified mail. You can read my response in full online here:

http://www.vtutorials.com/clients/des/savesmc/appeal/pdf/dmct_07-20-06_letter.pdf

Although I have given him, and Santa Monica College, adequate time to respond, President Tsang has not done so. I even emailed him again today, with the same link I provided you, and he has not responded. I asked that he respond by the close of business today.

Accordingly, I have met all the legal requirements, as you yourself have indicated in writing, pertaining to the appeal of my May 23, 2006 suspension. SMC has failed to comply, and continues to fail to comply, with the law in many regards. To date, I have not been afforded inspection of my disciplinary files, as requested for the last year in writing. I have not been provided several of the SMCPD incident reports, which SMC makes reference to in its suspension. I have not been provided a clear statement of the charges against me. I have not been provided with an explanation of how the various student conduct codes apply to my case. I have not been afforded the names and titles of the allegedly impartial appeal hearing committee. I have not been provided with a formal conference with anyone at SMC to discuss my charges.

SMC has never conducted an investigation regarding the summary allegations used to suspend me. SMC has failed to provide any factual explanation why you authorized an immediate interim suspension against me. SMC has failed to provide any justification for its lengthy two-year suspension, which is completely unsubstantiated by SMC's boilerplate allegations. I have not been provided a timely appeal hearing as required by law. Despite even providing extensions of such, SMC has continued to wrongfully suspend me.

By copy of this email, and my email and certified letter to President Tsang (which I incorporate herein by reference and make a part herein), I am demanding that the suspension be dismissed in its entirety and that the enrollment hold be removed promptly so that I can register for Fall semester classes at SMC. I do not agree to a suspension hearing date in the far-flung future. SMC is under a duty to comply with the law, and with due process in general. There is no excuse for your failure to produce either witnesses in this case or my accusers. The law does not allow SMC to unilaterally decide to extend my suspension because its employees allegedly wish to enjoy their summer vacation. I have provided you with dates for the suspension appeal hearing, which you have blatantly ignored.

Simply put, SMC is well aware that its vague, ambiguous, and overbroad allegations and student conduct code violations cannot and will not hold up under any sort of scrutiny. Thus, as usual, you are finding excuses for endless delays to withhold my legitimate access to campus and to deprive me of an education. In a court of law, a person is found innocent before being proven guilty. However, SMC has found me guilty before being proven innocent. Even if the suspension appeal were to go forth promptly, SMC has tainted the process (and its alleged adverse witnesses) to such a point that I would not be afforded a fair and impartial hearing. As such, the appeal hearing should be promptly dismissed with prejudice.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Very Truly Yours,

Des Manttari


------------ ROBERT SAMMIS' EMAIL TO ME REFERENCED HEREIN -----------

From: "SAMMIS_ROBERT" SAMMIS_ROBERT@smc.edu
To: "Phoenix Genesis"
Subject: RE: Second Request for Dismissal of Wrongful Suspension
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:51:36 -0700

Des:

If you wish to have input into the date of your hearing, then please have your attorney contact me directly. If I do not here from your attorney or from you if you do not have an attorney by the end of the week, the District will proceed to set the hearing date. Please note that during the summer months most faculty and staff are on vacation and thus we typically do not hold any hearings during the summer months. However, if you and your attorney desire to have a hearing prior to the beginning of the fall semester we will do our best to accommodate such a request. All you need to do is simply let me know when you want the hearing to begin.

Robert Sammis
Vice President, Planning&Development
Santa Monica Community College District
310.434.4206


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