N.C. State University officials have misled the public about the dispute over former first lady Mary Easley's effort to contest her firing last summer, her attorneys say in a letter released today.
The letter, sent to NCSU trustee Randall Ramsey today, claims that the university has no procedure for a case like Easley's and that the "process cobbled together by NCSU does not meet basic due process requirements."
The letter comes a day after NCSU officials announced that they had dismissed a grievance Easley filed last summer. In a statement, the university said Easley failed to respond to a request to schedule a pre-hearing meeting and the grievance hearing itself.
University officials refused to say more about the grievance, saying it was a personnel matter. Easley was told of the dismissal in a letter dated last Wednesday.
Easley was given a five-year, $850,000 contract to run a speakers series and create a public safety leadership center in 2008. But controversy erupted after The News & Observer reported that her job had been pushed by her husband, former Gov. Mike Easley, and orchestrated at the highest levels of state government.
The university’s Board of Trustees recommended that Interim Chancellor James Woodward end Easley’s contract last summer.
Woodward said Easley was no longer needed because substantial portions of her job were eliminated as a result of budget cuts required of the university by the shortfall in the state’s budget.
In their letter today, Easley's attorneys, Wade Byrd and S. Luke Largess, say university officials "made very clear" that they could not provide Easley with any documents about her firing or the budget information that would have led to it.
"Mrs. Easley was not let go because of the budget, but she had to prove that fact without access to any evidence," Byrd and Largess wrote.
Through a spokesman, NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson said that he would not comment on the letter from Easley’s attorneys because it involved a personnel issue.
