Falsely Accused Read Online Free

that the great man had expired porking someone?”
    â€œOh, God, no! I just did my usual dog and pony about the evolution of the M.E.’s office, and at the part where I say that one of the problems of the job is doing autopsies of notable people, I may have mentioned him. He’d died a couple of days before the presentation.”
    â€œBut no death in the saddle?”
    â€œOf course not!”
    â€œWise. I expect we can corral enough distinguished physicians who were at the meeting to confirm it. In fact, when shown false, the charge is so infamous that it’ll help with damages.”
    Selig suddenly realized the import of this remark. “You’re taking the case?”
    â€œOh, yeah,” said Karp. “You’ll make an appointment, and we’ll go over this stuff line by line.”
    Karp shifted his swivel chair so that it faced the window and fell silent. He seemed deep in thought. After a minute or so, Selig cleared his throat and asked, “So—you think we have a good case?”
    â€œOh, no question. I’m a little rusty on employment law, but I’m certain that a public official can’t be fired for cause without some sort of hearing.”
    â€œThe Mayor claims I’m—I was —a political appointee serving at his pleasure.”
    Karp shook his head dismissively. “That’s something we’ll duke out. Even if they could fire you, I’m almost sure they can’t fire you for cause without giving you a hearing. It’s not a Roth case. God, I can’t believe I remembered that!”
    â€œWho’s Roth?”
    â€œTeacher at Wisconsin, early seventies. Untenured. The school didn’t renew his contract, and he sued. He claimed that they didn’t renew because he’d pissed off the university authorities by criticizing the administration. Defendants came back with the argument that they didn’t have to give any reason at all for not renewing, and the Supreme Court agreed.”
    â€œThis is good for us?”
    â€œYeah. The Supremes decided he didn’t have what they call a property interest in his job, because they didn’t fire him, they just declined to rehire him. You did have such an interest. Also, and probably more significantly for our purposes, when they declined to rehire Roth, they made no statement that would impugn his good name and prevent him from getting a job elsewhere. And from what you tell me, the press conference and all, that’s very far from your case. They canned you for cause, and went public that they thought you were a bum. They can’t do that, not without giving you the right of rebuttal. We can work a little deprivation of liberty action in here too.”
    To Selig’s questioning look Karp added, “Liberty. Under Fourteenth Amendment case law, liberty includes the right to seek your customary employment. By maligning you without due process, they’ve limited your liberty in that way.” Karp stared out the window again.
    â€œWhat are you thinking?” asked Selig when the waiting became too much for him.
    Karp spun his chair slowly around until he faced Selig. “What I’m thinking is, why? Bloom doesn’t like to make waves. He made plenty over you. And he must have used some pretty big chips with the Mayor to get you out of the C.M.E.’s slot.”
    â€œNaomi said it’s because he’s a controlling asshole.”
    â€œThat’s true enough, but …”—Karp flipped the copies of the complaint letters on his desk—“this crap, this snails nonsense, isn’t enough to warrant the hatchet job Bloom did on you.”
    â€œThe reason’s important?”
    â€œOh, yeah. I think in a way it’s the key to the case. Not the case we’ll argue in court, necessarily.”
    Karp fell again into a silent study, and Selig, starting to become irritated with what seemed to him vagueness, changed the