Washoe County District Judge Connie Steinheimer issued the order Thursday in a case involving multiple lawsuits filed by Richard Schweickert, Terri Patraw and Lane Grow. According to the UNR student newspaper, Patraw is a former Nevada soccer coach who resigned soon after the start of the 2007 season. She claims she was harassed after filing a Title IX complaint with the NCAA concerning the conduct of other coaches. She has two lawsuits pending against the university.
Grow is a former UNR Police Department sergeant who was fired last year. He has filed four lawsuits against UNR and UNRPD officials alleging sexism, ageism and that the department protects alcoholics in its ranks.
Schweickert is a geological sciences professor at UNR. He has four lawsuits against the university with claims of intimidation and unfair faculty review policies.
Allegations against the university by Grow, Patraw and Schweickert include financial crimes, police crimes, equal opportunity crimes, legal counsel crimes and abuse of power and racketeering crimes.
The exact allegations that will be subject to grand jury review are not being released. Patraw said Friday that she and her lawyers will be filing an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday to address some of the allegations that were dismissed by Steinheimer. Those dismissals are outlined in detail in Thursday’s order.
A university spokesperson issued this statement:
“We have reviewed Judge Steinheimer’s 92-page order. We are pleased, but not surprised that Judge Steinheimer has found that 178 of the petitioners’ allegations are unfounded and there is no reasonable evidence supporting the accusations.
“The order indicates that some matters will be referred to the grand jury. That order is sealed and we do not know the nature of those matters. Regardless, we are prepared to confront whatever remaining accusations there may be with credible and believable evidence. It is unfortunate that the process did not allow the university to participate or be heard in these one-sided presentations.
“We are not able to comment further without knowing the contents of Judge Steinheimer’s sealed order,” the statement concluded.
On Friday afternoon, Patraw said Steinheimer dismissed only a fraction of the charges leveled in the more than 5,000 documents submitted detailing alleged crimes at the university.
“We’re obviously excited about it,” Patraw said, referring to the allegations that will be investigated by a grand jury. “We knew we presented evidence of criminal activity.”
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