The Red Queen's Rules:
A Response to Utah Valley University Faculty Members
My letter below is to members of the Utah Valley University faculty who responded to “The Red Queen’s Rules: The Tuminez Tribunal and the Anti Socratic Revolution in American Education.”
September 16, 2021
To Members of the Utah Valley University Faculty:
I first got involved in the Michael Shively case in 2019 when his stepdaughter, Lori Pye, reached out to my foundation (www.faintingrobin.org) for help. Once I began to research the Shively case, I grew horrified by the capricious manner with which Utah Valley University treated him. If this could happen to a tenured, senior professor like Michael Shively, it could happen to anyone.
In addition to serving as a college trustee (Bard College 2004-2014) and working as a history professor, I have written public and private briefs in a number of high profile cases over the years.
*Executive Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), ECCC v. Kaing Guek Eav, Khieu Samphan, Noun Chea, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith (1994-2021). Although the court was not formed until 2003, I was most active during the pre-trial investigation phase.
*US Supreme Court (2011), Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, contributing author of Brief of Amici Curiae of Nuremberg Historians and International Lawyers in Support of Neither Party.
*U.S. Supreme Court, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, Petitioner v. José Padilla and Donna R. Newman, as Next Friend of José Padilla, (2004).
*High Court of Justice (Queen’s Bench Division) David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt (2001).
The reason I spent more time investigating and analyzing the Michael Shively case than any of these previous cases, was because Utah Valley University, the Utah District Court, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, failed this professor so egregiously. Over the past two years, I have shared drafts with prominent litigators, a former U.S. Senator, law professors, veteran Federal government lawyers, a well-known college president, a retired Army general, numerous academic colleagues, two bestselling authors, a former British newsman of the year, and many others. Every one of them shared my utter disbelief about how one-sided, not to mention Kafkaesque, UVU’s “heads I win, tails you lose,” investigation was. I believe that the UVU administration should be held accountable for their actions because those actions led to Michael Shively’s mental breakdown and suicide.
The evidence supporting my charge that “Student 1” was President Tuminez’s nephew can be found in endnote 4 of “The Red Queen’s Rules.” My claim is based on one, on-the-record source, and two off-the-record sources (they feared retribution from the UVU administration). My on-the-record source was the Jim Harris interview with Insider Exclusive, “Justice in America: Michael Shively’s Story,” December 29, 2020. https://insiderexclusive.com/justice-in-america-dr-michael-jay-shivelys-story/ and Anne P. Shively v. Utah Valley University, Astrid S. Tuminez, Karen Clemes, and Sara J. Flood, U.S. District Court, District of Utah, Central Division, Case No. 2:20-cv-00119-DBP, p. 16: “99. As the report noted, one student unabashedly solicited complaints by distributing an email which offered peers a great opportunity to complain about Shively. This student expressed that he had a deadline by which he had to submit complaints directly to the president of the university, Tuminez. 100. Upon information and belief, this student is Tuminez’s nephew. 101. Alternatively, this student had a relationship with Tuminez that allowed him to bypass the usual chain of command and directly contact UVU’s president.”
It is my opinion that Astrid Tuminez, Sara Flood, Karen Clemes, and Kat Brown all need to answer a very simple question: Is “Student 1” Astrid Tuminez’s nephew? If he is, they are guilty of a gross conflict of interest, an abuse of power, and possibly a conspiracy that did not end with a prearranged verdict--it ended with a Utah Valley University professor’s death. If “Student 1” is not Astrid Tuminez’s nephew, I will revise my article to reflect this fact and issue a public apology to Tuminez, Flood, Clemes, Brown, and “Student 1.”
Respectfully,
Peter Maguire
Note: In a previous version of this letter, I incorrectly stated that I had two state on the record that Student 1 was President Tuminez’s nephew. I had only one on the record source.