Maroon

              MAROON Loyola University New Orleans, Louis'ana Volume 51 Number 18 March 13,1975 Crandall protest pending, SGA has no vp SEAN WELCH Staff Reporter The Student Government Association will be without a vice-president for at least two weeks. A decision cannot be reached by the court justices because Chief Justice Pat O'Keefe will be attending a meeting of the American Trial Lawyer's Association in Mexico. Evidence and testimony was reviewed Saturday by the Student Judicial Court concerning the election protest of Thom Crandall. Crandall, a vice-presidential candidate during the election is alleging election code irregularities on the part of Elections Committee chairman Bob DeVoto over the SGA vice-presidential race. Court convened at 1:15 p.m. with O'Keefe saying the case would be reheard and the lower court ruling would not be considered. The lower court ruling had dismissed Crandall's allegations. Counsel for the plaintiff, Debbie Gray, moved for the recusal of Chief Justice O'Keefe because he is related to SGA president Sean O'Keefe. Defense counsel Larry Simmons moved for the recusal of Justice Bob Morrison because of comments Morrison made about DeVoto in last year's election. In her opening arguments, co-counsel for the plaintiff, Kate Butler, argued the hearing isn't a criminal proceeding but a civil one. "When an election has unanswered questions and discrepancies, the public confidence in the election has been shaken," said Butler. She added these discrepancies warranted a new election and harassment and intimidation clouded the integrity of the election. Defense counsel waived opening arguments. The first witness called for the plaintiff was Tony Jerido, former SGA representative. Under questioning by Gray, Jerido said Pastorek (Candidate for SGA vice-president) violated the 10 foot fule. The ten foot fule requires campaigning by candidates take place at least ten feet away from the voting area. Jerido then said Pastorek corrected himself. The next witness called was Mike O'Brien, former A&S president to the SGA. The defense objected because the questions asked were not on the witness list. The counsels approached the bench and the witness was excused. A tape and synopsis of the lower court ruling were entered as evidence by the plaintiff but the court decided this wasn't admissible because the tape was one hour long and the hearing ran three hours. The court said the synopsis was written from the plaintiff's point of view. An affidavit submitted by the plaintiff to the court alleged improper election procedures. The plaintiff then rested its case. Defense counsel Simmons took the floor and asked for a directed verdict. The defense argued that no votes were changed as a result of the election irregularities alleged by Crandall. Counsel then cited Louisiana jurisprudence saying before an election can be deemed invalid evidence must be provided showing that the outcome of the election would have been different due to election irregularities. Chief Justice O'Keefe condensed the arguments saying Crandall was hurt by what took place and also, the election was put in jeopardy. The plaintiff replied that these were both shown by affidavits and witnesses. The defense was denied a directed verdict by the Court. The defendant, Bob DeVoto, was called to the stand. He said some rules were relaxed because of administrative difficulties. The difficulties were that voting machines were unavailable after plans had been made to obtain them. DeVoto said he had 2 weeks to run this election as opposed to the usual 3. The election date was changed from April to February compounding the problem, DeVoto said. The SGA was told in a 1 meeting that there would be problems in tht election if enough manpower wasn't obtained to man the polls. Crandall was present at that meeting, said DeVoto, and made no objection. Ballots wouldn't be numbered because of time, DeVoto said. Under questioning, DeVoto said people approached him saying they had been harassed by Crandall. His reply was "that's an election." The defense rested its case at 4:30 p.m. A 15 minute recess was called by O'Keefe and after that, final arguments would be heard. "This is not a criminal case," said co-counsel Butler, "and no one is being persecuted. The question is: why is there an election code? An election code is promulgated to take care of suspicious occurrences. The plaintiff has shown violations of the election code." Butler said if DeVoto could not provide a fair election, he should have resigned. "So, to determine who is the proper vice-president, a new election should be called," Butler said. The defense contended the plaintiff didn't prove three things: was there an improper vote, did those votes go to Pastorek and finally, did those improper votes harm Crandall. Simmons said "Crandall violated the ten foot zone, so he can't allege election irregularities because he is guilty of them. There is no show of vote prejudice, stuffing of ballots or that PHOTO by Kathie O'Callaghan SGA vice presidential candidate Thom Crandall confers with Steve Mac Donald during election protest hearing. (See SGA on page 12)