January 26, 2000
LA Times
Former trustee may sue college district
Teddi Lorch, who served until 1998, claims Irvine Valley teacher defamed her using school equipment.
By RENEE MOILANEN
Teddi Lorch, who served on the board from 1993 to 1998, claims Irvine Valley College professor Roy Bauer launched a “conscious, willful and malicious campaign to defame” her in newsletters distributed regularly at Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges.
The district denied Lorch’s formal claim Monday night. Her lawyer, Chandler Bartlett, said that his client is now “considering her options” to file suit.
In the claim, Lorch names three trustees and Chancellor Cedric Sampson as witnesses, but wouldn’t say whether the former colleagues had previously agreed to speak on her behalf.
Lorch believes Bauer used district equipment to produce his anti-board newsletters, an allegation that he denies.
“That’s utterly false,” Bauer said. “I have never used the equipment on campus. I do all that stuff at home.”
Lorch is seeking damages exceeding $10,000. She said, however, that she may accept an apology from Bauer.
In her claim, Lorch points to four newsletters beginning in February 1998 and ending last June. Of these, an April 1998 newsletter contained a cartoon titled “In the Lorch Wood,” depicting two characters resembling Tweedledee and Tweedledum with Lorch’s head superimposed on both.
“Only reasonable minds can conclude that the demeaning and defaming content and duration of his newsletters ... were maliciously designed to intimidate, ridicule and degrade me and others in leadership positions who were not of his liking,” Lorch told board members in a statement Monday.
She said she decided to file the claim after the June newsletter, which came out nearly six months after she gave up her seat on the board.
That's Teddi on the right, above Johnny
“If one is serving on the board of directors, it’s a different capacity than if one is no longer on that board,” Bartlett said. “It may have been a factor in the filing of this claim.”
Bauer admits that he often lampooned Lorch, even after she left the board.
“I think she’s a public figure,” he said. “When I refer to people in newsletters, it’s in the context of something they’re doing relevant to the district.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that Bauer’s newsletters were protected under the First Amendment.
Lorch listed eight witnesses in her claim, among them trustees Dorothy Fortune, Steven Frogue and John Williams, with whom she was closely aligned during her board tenure.
Trustee Nancy Padberg said she’s known Lorch’s family for “15-plus years” and would “have no problem being a witness if she needs me.”
No trustee can remember any problems or rifts when Lorch left the board.
“Something has to be said about values,” Lorch said, referring to Bauer’s newsletters. “Someone else has to take him to task.”
