A lawsuit involving two Tufts employees came to a conclusion yesterday after a jury at the Middlesex Superior Court announced its verdict in a case that has spanned several years. The decision was in favor of the defendant, Susan Cleary.
The case pitted the plaintiff, Francine Burke, currently the circulation coordinator at the Tisch Library and formerly the administrator of the math department, against Cleary, currently the math department administrator and formerly a secretary in the same department.
According to the complaint filed in 2003 by Burke and provided to the Daily by court clerk Wayne Emerson, Cleary falsely accused Burke of making death threats against Tufts officials in a conversation with her in 2001.
The alleged discussion came about a month after Michael McDermott, who worked at Edgewater Technology Inc. in Wakefield, Mass. killed seven of his co-workers. Cleary, according to the complaint, said in the presence of Tufts officials that Burke had indicated during the conversation a desire to "do what that man in Wakefield had done" to Tufts officials.
Cleary, in her response to the complaint, maintained that Burke actually did make the comments. After Tufts officials found out about the alleged threat, Burke was called into a meeting with Wayne Bouchard, who was then the executive administrative dean of finance, budget and personnel; and Larry Hunt, who was then the executive director for human resources. Both have since left Tufts.
Following the meeting, Burke was suspended from her position, which she said caused her a great deal of stress.
After a psychological evaluation that determined she was not a risk, she was allowed to return to campus. While Burke was suspended, Cleary was promoted to and still holds the position once held by Burke.
Although the complaint was filed in 2003, the trial did not start until this month. Emerson said that the jury began hearing the case on Feb. 21. After hearing testimony, the jury considered two charges: slander and interference with an advantageous relationship.
Specifically, Burke charged in the complaint that she "was and is greatly and permanently injured and damaged in her good name and reputation, and was and is exposed to public contempt, hatred and ridicule" and that she lost her job as math department administrator "as a direct result of the actions of this defendant." As compensation, she sought "judgment against this defendant for damages and costs."
The jury ruled in favor of Cleary on both charges. "It's my understanding ... [that] Susan Cleary was found not responsible, so there was a defense verdict," Senior University Counsel Dickens Mathieu told the Daily.
Emerson, who is the clerk in the court room in which the case was tried, confirmed the verdict for the Daily.
Although the case involved two people employed by Tufts, Mathieu said that the university has not had a stake in it since charges initially filed against Bouchard and Hunt were dismissed several years ago shortly after the complaint was filed. They were initially named in the complaint for allegedly inflicting emotional harm on Burke in their official capacity, but their subsequent request to have the charges dismissed went unchallenged.
The two former employees "were dismissed from the case a long time ago, before I joined the university in 2004, so the university does not have and has not had a stake in this case for a while," he said.
Despite the ruling against her, Burke told the Daily that she felt that filing the case was something she had to do. "Untruth was spoken about me so I just felt that I had to stand up for myself. That's all," she said.
Susan Cleary could not be reached for comment by press time.
