Editors Note: This article was updated at 2:29 p.m. to clarify that NonDoc's argument for releasing the Jones Day reports was that the reports were not exempt from the Open Records Act.
A Cleveland County judge has ruled in favor of OU, declaring the reports from law firm Jones Day containing allegations against former OU President David Boren and former Vice President of University Development Jim “Tripp” Hall are privileged as a matter of law.
On Dec. 20, Cleveland County Judge Michael Tupper ruled OU had “properly exercised its statutory discretion” by denying a request for the documents under the Open Records Act from media outlet NonDoc.
In 2021, Tres Savage, editor-in-chief of NonDoc, filed a lawsuit against the OU Board of Regents claiming OU had violated the state’s Open Records Act after his request for a copy of the Jones Day report was denied.
Between 2018 and 2019, OU paid Jones Day $1.5 million to investigate alumni donorship data reported to U.S. News & World Report, after it was discovered OU had provided falsified data since 1999, and sexual misconduct allegations against Boren and Hall.
Over the course of the case, lawyers for OU argued publicizing the Jones Day report would release identifying information about victims. OU cited several exemptions under the Open Records Act, including attorney-client privilege, personnel records, along with the constitutional right to privacy as resources for not releasing the report.
NonDoc’s lawyers argued that the report should be made publicaly available because none of the exemptions under the Open Records Act were applicable in this case. NonDoc's lawyers also argued that the Jones Day investigation was about an abuse of power.
During the case, Tupper had the opportunity to read the Jones Day reports alone in his court chambers. Tupper ruled that the Jones Day reports are protected under the personnel records and investigative files exemption of the Open Records Act.
In an article posted to NonDoc, Savage wrote he plans to appeal the case to either the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals or the state Supreme Court.
“As I have maintained during the five years that have passed since Jones Day completed its investigations for OU, I look forward to helping the university turn the page beyond misconduct of the past,” Savage wrote in the article. “However, since those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, the public has a right and a need to read the pages that brought us to this point.”
Jones Day reports background
Boren served as OU’s president for nearly 24 years, from 1994 to 2018. Boren played a large role in the physical transformation of OU, founding the Honors College and the College of International Studies. Boren also was involved in the success and improvements of OU’s athletic department, hiring Athletic Director Joe Castiglione in 1998 and former head coach Bob Stoops in 1999.
Prior to his time as OU president, Boren served as a U.S. senator for 15 years and Oklahoma’s governor for one four-year term.
Hall was a longtime confidant and employee of Boren, spearheading numerous fundraising efforts for Boren, greatly increasing private donations to support OU’s endeavors. At OU, Hall served as the vice president of university development. When Boren was senator in 1994, Hall served as his director of eastern Oklahoma operations.
In 2019, Jess Eddy, an OU graduate and former teaching assistant, alleged he received unwanted sexual touching from Boren and was groped by Hall. A second OU graduate and university employee, Levi Hilliard, alleged Hall touched him inappropriately multiple times in 2017 and 2018. Hilliard settled his case against Hall in court in 2020.
When allegations were first reported in 2019, Boren and Hall declined to answer questions or comment on the allegations. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation looked into the claims. At the end of OSBI’s investigation, neither Boren nor Hall faced indictments.
Boren denied any wrongdoing throughout the Jones Day investigation. Boren did cut all remaining ties with OU in June 2019, including his position as a political science instructor, free tickets to sporting events, his campus office and an assigned parking space.
Hall was terminated by the university in 2018 as part of a series of staff layoffs.
Jones Day investigated two matters for OU: the Boren and Hall allegations and misreported alumni participation and donor data to the U.S. News & World Report. US News and World Report is a media outlet that produces an annual “Best Colleges” list, ranking universities based on multiple criteria including a school’s alumni giving rate.
OU admitted to reporting incorrect information since 1999, after discovering the misreporting in 2018 and provided updated information to U.S. News & World Report immediately.
As a result of the false data reporting, U.S. News and World Report stripped OU of its ranking on the “Best Colleges” list and would remain unranked for two years. OU reentered the U.S. News & World Report rankings in 2022 as the 127th best university nationally.
This article was edited by Ismael Lele.
