Northwestern will comply with a judge’s ruling in the RashidiWheeler lawsuit that could lead to the disclosure of moreinformation about current and former employees, a universityofficial said Tuesday.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kathy Flanagan ruled Friday thatthe university had to provide more information on the whereaboutsof copies of a physical performed on Wheeler in July 2001, threeweeks before his death during a preseason conditioning drill.
According to published reports, Flanagan wrote that theuniversity must provide the names, addresses, phone numbers, andpast and present employment statuses of anyone who might know wherethe records are or why they cannot be found.
Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, said theuniversity believed its previous disclosures about the records weresufficient, but “the judge felt otherwise.”
“We’re obviously going to comply with Judge Flanagan’s ruling,”he said.
Cubbage said the university would provide counsel for anyemployees who are brought into the case and do not want to hiretheir own lawyers.
The physical in question was performed by Dr. Mark Gardner, theformer director of student health. Acting director Joanne Connollywas not available to comment Tuesday, but another employee atstudent health who did not wish to be identified said there hadbeen no discussion of the Wheeler case among staff.
“It’s all in the hands of the courts and the attorneys,” shesaid.
Lawyers for Wheeler’s mother, Linda Will, and the supplementcompanies involved in the case have argued repeatedly that NU’sstatement that the records “no longer exist” is insufficient.
James Montgomery, who represents Will, said Flanagan’s rulingwas important because a “cover-up” may have taken place.
“The decision makes a lot of sense,” Montgomery said. “The factthat those records are missing suggests that there is clearly somerelevant information here that Northwestern is trying toconceal.”
The missing records have caused at least one former alumnus tosour on NU. In Rick Telander’s column published in the ChicagoSun-Times Monday, the former NU cornerback blasted theuniversity.
“Northwestern’s sudden ‘loss’ of Wheeler’s medical tests, takenjust three weeks before he died, smells of evil,” Telanderwrote.
But Cubbage said he is not worried columns such as Telander’swill hurt the university’s reputation.
“Any opinion columnist is entitled to express his or heropinion,” Cubbage said.
The Wheeler case began in August 2001, just a few weeks afterthe former NU defensive back’s death. His parents blamed his deathon the strenuous workout and poor medical attention.
The university blames his death on the use of supplementscontaining the banned substance ephedra.
NU has brought five companies associated with the production anddistribution of the supplements into the suit.
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“Northwestern’s sudden ‘loss’ of Wheeler’s medical tests, takenjust three weeks before he died, smells of evil.”
Rick Telander,
Chicago Sun-Times columnist
