Trial • Former
ASI presidential candidate Uduak-Joe
Ntuk’s (top) and ASI Attorney
General Kevin Rhodes listen as the
AS Judiciary hears the lawsuit filed
against ASI President Jamie Pollock
regarding the misappropriated funds
Monday. Erika Jones / Online Forty-Niner
Former
candidate’s lawsuit calls for ASI
fee refund
By Allison Baldwin
Online Forty-Niner
Editorial Assistant
Cal State Long Beach’s Associated Student Judiciary heard arguments and
testimony Monday in a former ASI presidential candidate’s lawsuit against
ASI for the reimbursement of $88 in mandatory student fees.
In a complaint filed March 13, Uduak-Joe Ntuk requested he be refunded his
2005-06 mandatory ASI fees because he claimed Jamie Pollock, ASI president
for the 2005-06 term, acted in “an improper, fraudulent and inefficient
manner.”
Ntuk cited a previous case between himself and Pollock where she was found
liable for misappropriating funds to her former campaign manager and current
Chief of Staff Robert Godina
Ntuk represented himself at the hearing, while Attorney General Kevin Rhodes
represented ASI. Ntuk was informed Pollock had quashed her subpoena as a witness,
citing a family emergency.
Rhodes moved to dismiss the suit, saying it would be double jeopardy to try
Pollock on offenses she had already been tried for. Chief Justice Nicholas
Mokhlessin denied Rhodes’ request, clarifying Ntuk filed a complaint
against ASI and not against Pollock.
Ntuk presented an Internet petition signed by more than 4,000 students and
said he requested to submit their names as additional plaintiffs. Rhodes moved
to dismiss the petition, saying not all of the names had sufficient information
to confirm all of the signatures belonged to CSULB students. The Judiciary
agreed with Rhodes and did not include the petitioners as plaintiffs.
Ntuk introduced a T-shirt and a bookmark as evidence for his case. He said
the
T-shirts, made in Guatemala, went against the ASI Procurement Policy, which
prohibits selling T-shits made in sweatshops. Ntuk said the bookmark “just
shows a waste of student fees.” Both pieces of evidence were stricken
at Rhodes’ request.
Ntuk called David Kirsten, a senior psychology and marketing major, as a witness.
Ntuk asked Kirsten his opinions on ASI’s use of student fees, and he
expressed his discontent with the use of his mandatory fees.
Rhodes cross-examined Kirsten after entering into evidence an article printed
in s Union
Weekly Monday on Ntuk’s motivation for suing ASI. Rhodes asked Kirsten,
a source for the article, his opinions on Uduak’s motivation for the
suit. Kirsten said Ntuk wrote an e-mail petition Kirsten sent to the student
body about the ASI fee refund.
The hearing will continue at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Senate Chambers, USU-217.
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