Ohio U plagiarism mess taking a nasty turn

The lawyer for former Ohio University engineering professor Bhavin Mehta, tarnished in the Ohio University plagiarism mess, seemed pretty aggressive in opening statements:

Mehta attorney Barbara Terzian criticized the methodology of the university's investigation, and the report that resulted from it, which was done by Gary Meyer and Hugh Bloemer. Terzian argued Meyer and Bloemer had no working definition of plagiarism and didn't interview any students whose theses were suspect or the professors who advised them, before laying the blame on several advisers without naming them directly. Terzian argued that Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl knew of the flaws in the report, but released it to the public anyway, causing harm to Mehta's reputation.

"If a graduate student had given her this report, she would have said, "let's do it over,'" Terzian said of Krendl's decision to release the report. "But when a man's reputation was on the line, she held a press conference." [from the Athens Messenger]

IPBiz notes the different direction the Ohio U. case has taken from the SIU case involving Poshard, even though both involved plagiarism in theses. At Ohio U, the "advising" professors got whacked (and are now fighting back), but at SIU the remaining "advising" professor was deemed credible. It all depends on who the plagiarism defendant is.

See also

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/09/flipping-filippo-batman-gunasekera.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/10/mehta-sues-ohio-university-in.html