ELIZABETH ROBINS / THE EAGLE
Alex Prescott
Updated Sept. 3 at 9:51 p.m.
Student Government Secretary Colin Meiselman, Class of 2010 Sen. Steve Dalton and Vice President Alex Prescott discussed removing Comptroller Matt Handverger during finals week last semester, according to former Sen. Jordan Boyd.
Boyd, who is on a semester-long leave of absence from AU, informed Handverger of this information via Facebook this morning.
“Meiselman, Dalton, [Senator Eric] Coletta, [Former Sen. Jason] Cunningham, [Former Senator and Vice President Jeff] Hanley, and (to an extent) Prescott were lobbying for your impeachment prior to you assuming office,” the e-mail said. “I had dinner with the first four [excluding Prescott] during finals week last semester. They brought up the prospect of impeaching you, and Meiselman encouraged Dalton to bring it up.”
Dalton’s opinions are significantly different now, Handverger said.
Meiselman refuted the allegations, saying he “never would have had a serious discussion related to that that early, at all.”
“It’s total hearsay,” he added.
However, Boyd’s accusations were partially confirmed by Cunningham, one of the senators alleged to have discussed Handverger’s impeachment last spring.
“I can confirm that the Senators named were having dinner at the end of the Spring semester after the election,” Cunningham wrote in an e-mail to The Eagle. “It was during Mr. Meiselman’s time attending the transition meetings with the other members of the cabinet. It came up that Meiselman was concerned about Handverger’s dedication to the job ... Meiselman’s claims that these revelations are “hearsay” is inaccurate.”
Cunningham, while confirming Meiselman’s role in the impeachment proceedings, claimed that Boyd’s accusations were “misleading and at times patently false.”
Boyd also e-mailed the senators informing them that some unnamed SG members had been discussing impeachment even before Handverger took office.
“It is no secret that some of you were looking for reasons to impeach him before he even took office,” the e-mail said. “I have to wonder whether this is an true example of the Undergraduate Senate performing its duties as a body of oversight, or an example of several members on a mission to derail an official they have several biases against because of his connections to individuals who were, for a lack of a better word, corrupt.”
“I respected former Sen. Boyd when he was in the Senate,” Meiselman said. “I’d remind people that he doesn’t have the full story, and that it’s kind of hard to make judgments when you’re not at the location of what’s happened.”
The Eagle obtained these documents and discussed them some executive SG members.
“The question before the Senate doesn’t deal with the intentions of any individuals involved in this trial, but whether or not the charges are true,” President Andy MacCracken said when shown the documents. “I don’t know if anything was premeditated the way that Mr. Boyd is insinuating. I don’t think that anything was premeditated here.”
Prescott sent The Eagle this statement, reproduced in whole here:
“The question at hand is negligence and falsification of time sheets. I strongly believe that the evidence presented at the hearing proves these things. Was there a close eye on him, yes, but a conspiracy, no. Furthermore, this e-mail was sent prior to the start of the trial. Mr. Boyd, who is no longer a Senator or at the University, has not been there to hear the evidence and does not address the correct charges. This is a matter of hearsay, and once again the Senate is not addressing the intention or any premeditation but rather the charges of negligence and falsification of time sheets.”
Special Counsel Tommy Fijacko sent The Eagle a prepared statement expressing “alarm” at the claims.
“I don’t see how the Senate could not now move to allow this information at the trial,” Fijacko said. “The allegations of conspiracy plotted against Matthew Handverger, directed at half of the SG Executive Board and a number of SG Senators, bring into question the claims, made by these same individuals, to have a fair trial.”
Despite the new evidence, Senate Speaker Anthony Dunham said he would not entertain a motion to allow the evidence to be shown.
“I intend to ensure that the evidence that was subpoenaed and given in the specific time for submission will be the only evidence used for this proceeding,” he said. “I feel that it the most fair way to proceed. It is my position that that is a motion [to allow new evidence] I would not entertain at the time.”
Staff writer Lindsey Anderson contributed to this report.
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11 Comments
no one at AU really cares about SG anyway
Sep 3 at 4:31 PM
Thank you Boyd for finally proving what we all knew: members of the student government, mainly members of the SigEp fraternity, are for some reason in a crusade against Matt because they don’t like him on a personal level. I hope that regardless of this evidence being admitted at trial, the AU administration gets involved in this.
AEPI likes to victimize itself
Sep 3 at 5:45 PM
In what way does this even remotely point to sigep? Get over yourselves and stop making yourselves victims. if handverger had been remotely competent, there would not be an issue, now would there?
AU Student
Sep 3 at 7:06 PM
It’s obvious that this didn’t have to do with hiswork performance, doesn’t matter if he, as you said, as incompetent; they started planning this impeachment before he even took office!
What a V.P. and Secretary we have! As executives they should act as role models for the rest of campus… Lets be honest, this case was over before he even came to office.
Thank you Boyd for some truth behind this witch hunt.
Astounded
Sep 3 at 8:53 PM
Seriously?
Any attempt to conjure up a smoke-and-mirrors hearsay about Prescott, Meiselman, SigEp and others detracts from the actual issue at hand. It shows me that Handverger has no tenable defense against these charges. Then again, if it was proved that I raised $25 out of a goal of $1200, falsified timesheets, and failed to oversee AUTO until service became “shoddy,” I would attempt to cook-up a hair-brained and incoherent conspiracy theory as well.
AU Student
Sep 3 at 8:59 PM
How did he cook this up?
A former senator was the one who presented this to him?
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about, “Astounded,” because the comptroller raised 640 dollars for the magazine and would have raised the complete amount if they would have billed each office.
Wake up and listen to the evidence
Colin Crane
Sep 3 at 9:47 PM
No surprise here….
The whole process of these proceedings, setting aside the charges against Handverger (not to dismiss them though), is utterly ridiculous. Both members of the prosecution will also act as members of the jury when voting occurs, which is simply not how any respectable or fair trial process works.
In addition to the fact that Alves, who brought the charges against Handverger, sat on the panel that decided to bring them before the full senate, the motivation behind the charges has been suspect from the beginning. The claims in this article, despite the expected cries of hearsay from the prosecution, come as no surprise to someone who has sat through the testimony for the last two nights and seen the amount of effort that went into collecting countless (and several times irrelevant) pieces of evidence against Handverger.
It has become clear to me that there is more to the case than a simple presentation of evidence.
To be fair, the prosecution has made several legitimate points about the job Handverger has done as comptroller. These need to be addressed. But the bigger picture in this whole case is not the question of impeachment, but the question of whether the AUSG system is conducive to Handverger receiving a fair trial.
How to fix it? A senator needs to make a motion to suspend the voting rights of Alves and Rothman in the name of Handverger’s right to a fair trial. Without that, this case holds no merit or weight.
Colin Crane
School of Communications, 2011
Crane for PREZ
Sep 3 at 9:52 PM
Thank you! Absolutely right. If Alves is smart, and wants to rid any claim that these attacks are not personal…he will abstain his vote. Will it happen? Not at all. Unfortunately, this situation is giving the SG a bad rep. Remember, there are people who are still hard at work in other departments like KPU, SUB and WI. Just because the Senate and the execs are focused on this doesn’t mean all the bridges have collapsed. Hopefully, when this is all over they can start doing something meaningful.
Stugov Sucks
Sep 4 at 11:05 AM
Wow- is right- and I agree. Our Stugov leaders should be role models to campus. That Meiselman and the others were even discussing this at some sort of ‘dinner’ is disgusting. Everyone deserves a fair chance to prove themselves at a job- no matter what their Greek or academic affiliation. Maybe the impeachment charges should have been the other way around. Sounds like its Meiselman and the others who are at fault for creating such a hostile environment!
The Free World
Sep 6 at 5:07 AM
One of the largest travesties is the mere fact that no one in student government had ever thought of a reasonably just or fair way to get rid of one of their own. Clearly no one ever though that they’d have to work with someone that they didn’t want to or they assumed that all elected officials don’t know what the phrase “resume-padding” means (as it pertains to themselves anyway).
This entire trial was nothing but a pissing contest that wasted many people’s time, especially those who you all are allegedly serving.
Matt, whatever you do, don’t give up! Keep doing the job we elected you to do. You’re clearly the best man, please don’t let us down!
Stolen From
Sep 8 at 4:01 PM
Falsification of time sheets. What does that mean? That Mr. Handverger was paid for a job which he was not doing. Paid MONEY. Money comes from tuition. Tuition comes from YOU and it comes from ME. Anyone who goes to this university was stolen from by Mr. Handverger, and for anyone to try and paint his impeachment as a personal attack or conspiracy is absolutely ridiculous. Were Mr. Handverger working at a job, he would have been fired. Instead, the Senate attempted to hold him accountable, and have faced ridiculous backlash. Unbelievable.
Scott
Sep 8 at 10:16 PM
Are you at all aware that Handverger never even got to present his defense against these charges? Your petulant screaming is duly noted by nobody, I’m sure, and your guilty-because-i-said-so logic also defies most organized processes of determining justice.
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