The Florida Court of Appeal found major flaws in the original trial in the suit on behalf of Dr. Russell Mootry Jr., one of several social sciences faculty members fired in 2009 after a sexual harassment investigation.
Mootry joined Bethune-Cookman in 1977, won tenure in 1995 and became dean of the School of Social Sciences in 2005, according to the decision. He died in 2014.
In 2009, then-President Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed hired someone to investigate “alleged widespread sexual harassment of students by Mootry and other professors,” the decision said. The process didn’t follow the faculty handbook requirement for a committee to investigate sexual harassment complaints.
The investigative report omitted the names of purported victims, citing a promise of confidentiality.
After the inquiry, Mootry was fired for “moral turpitude” and violation of university ethics and sexual harassment policies, the decision said.
He denied any misconduct and sued, contending that the university had no grounds to fire him and didn’t follow proper procedures in doing so. He also sued Reed for defamation.
