The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals has rescinded the expulsion of Joshua M. Fellman from Rogers State University, saying the university threw out the former student without following proper procedures. Joshua M. Fellman was kicked off the Claremore, Okla., campus in August 2002 over accusations that he had downloaded and used keystroke-capturing software to gain remote access to administrators’ computers and to discover students’ network passwords. Mr. Fellman said he was expelled because administrators were angered that he accused them of firing his friend, a former student and employee, for expressing his religious beliefs. The appeals court announced this month that it was vacating the expulsion because Rogers State failed to maintain an electronic recording of Mr. Fellman’s disciplinary hearing, as required by state law. More than 40 minutes of the university’s recording of the hearing are missing. Joseph Harroz Jr., a lawyer who is representing Rogers State, declined comment on Monday.
The case was on appeal from the District Court of Rogers County. It ruled in Mr. Fellman’s favor in March 2004, arguing that his expulsion was "erroneous and arbitrary and capricious." Mr. Fellman graduated in 2004 from Northeastern State University, in Tahlequah, Okla., and is now working in Tulsa. For more on the case, see an article in The Chronicle by Andrea L. Foster.
