A Cleveland County judge has upheld a ruling calling for OU to submit two reports gathered by the Jones Day law firm that possibly contain sensitive information about former President David Boren, as first reported by the Norman Transcript.
In June 2022, Tres Savage, editor-in-chief of NonDoc, filed a lawsuit against the OU Board of Regents, claiming the university violated the Oklahoma Open Records Act. Savage initially submitted an open records request in 2019, and later filed a lawsuit requesting “any and all reports created by the law firm Jones Day for the University of Oklahoma relating to David Boren or Jim ‘Tripp’ Hall.”
This week, Savage and NonDoc requested for Cleveland County Judge Michael Tupper to review the two reports in his chambers out of public view, hopefully to offer Tupper enough information to decide whether the reports should be made available during discovery behind closed doors.
Tupper decided the reports should be viewed in camera, meaning out of the public’s view in chambers.
Leslie Robinson, Tupper’s bailiff, said in an email to OU Daily there is not a date set for the in-camera review. Once scheduled, Tupper will review the documents privately in his office. According to Robinson, no other person will be present in the chambers during the review.
Legal counsel for parties involved in the case will be allowed to wait in the courtroom while Tupper conducts the review.
“In the court’s opinion, I think the two Jones reports are necessary for the court to make its determination,” Tupper said Tuesday as reported by The Transcript. “I understand the university’s concerns over disclosure. It’s not a finding by the court that these things aren’t confidential ... it will assist the court in making these decisions. I’m going to reaffirm the decision of the court to make an in camera.”
The reports were compiled by Jones Day, a law firm based in Dallas. OU paid the law firm over a half a million dollars between 2018 and 2019 to investigate whether Boren and his former Vice President of University Development Tripp Hall acted inappropriately toward aides and students.
The reports compiled in 2018 and 2019 were sent to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in 2019, but charges were not filed against Boren, Hall or the university. The reports supposedly detail witnesses’ statements regarding allegations of sexual misconduct against Boren and Hall as well as the law firm’s findings of donation data misreporting during Boren’s administration.
“We believe that there are, again, things in question, and that the university doesn't want to talk about and we strongly believe that a summary judgment is inappropriate at this point because these disputes of fact have not been addressed by the defendants,” Savage told OU Daily Wednesday.
Roughly a month after Savage initially filed, the university filed a protective order against Savage and NonDoc Media. The order prevents Savage and NonDoc from publishing any of the information revealed in the discovery phase or behind closed doors.
In 2019, Jess Eddy, an OU graduate and former teaching assistant, alleged he received unwanted sexual touching from Boren and was groped by Hall. Eddy was interviewed twice by Jones Day. Another OU graduate and employee of the university reported he was inappropriately and non-consensually touched and kissed by Hall. The second accuser later settled in court and the file was sealed. A protective order was also issued for him.
Eddy said the court’s decision was a step in the right direction and toward justice.
“This is clearly a document of significant public importance. Its release is critical to the health and vitality of the University of Oklahoma going forward,” Eddy said. “We need to make sure that what happened never happens again.”
Boren stepped down from his presidency in 2018 and was succeeded by former OU President James L. Gallogly. Boren later cut all ties and resigned from OU in June 2019. OU currently has a statue of Boren on the North Oval, the College of International Studies is named after him and the Honors College is located in David L. Boren Hall.
The university’s lawyers said the reports contain the details of interviews with 62 people and those interviews were made in confidence. Making the reports a matter of public record breaches that confidence, the defense said.
Tupper told OU’s lawyers that the university had 90 days to submit the reports, including 60 days to tell the interviewees that the reports would go on permanent record and 30 days to determine if it wanted to hire further legal counsel, according to The Transcript.
“There’s still plenty of unanswered questions and our hope is that the release of these reports can help provide the public with a better understanding of what happened,” Savage said.
OU told the Daily Wednesday that the university does not comment on ongoing litigation.
Thomas Pablo contributed to the reporting of this article. This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
