A former Pima Community College nursing student has lost a bid for a new trial over her claims the school violated her rights as an English speaker.
Terri Bennett, who says she was wrongly suspended for complaining when fellow students spoke Spanish to one another in class, was unable to convince Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Fields that she deserves another chance to make her case.
In a recent application for a new trial, Bennett’s lawyers accused PCC’s attorney of coaching a witness during the initial trial by nodding her head to extract testimony that was favorable to the college.
Fields, who presided over Bennett’s jury trial in August, shot down that allegation.
“This Court had a bird’s eye view of the participants and is absolutely certain that no one was ‘coaching’ a witness to answer questions affirmatively or negatively,” Fields wrote in a Nov. 24 ruling denying a new trial.
Bennett’s attorneys also argued that a new trial was warranted because Fields allowed testimony that prejudiced the jury against her. Fields also rejected that argument.
The jury verdict, which was unanimously in PCC’s favor, “was sound and entirely supported by the evidence,” the judge’s latest ruling said.
Bennett’s lead attorney, John Munger of Tucson, said his client is weighing her options and has not decided whether to appeal.
In October, Fields ordered Bennett to pay PCC about $111,000 toward the school’s legal fees and related costs. The judge recently reduced that amount to around $93,000 because of a miscalculation in the costs portion of the initial award.
PCC officials maintain Bennett, 52, was suspended not because she complained but because she threatened and antagonized Spanish-speaking students.
A witness for PCC testified that Bennett used terms such as “spic, beaner and illegals” to describe Spanish-speaking students, but she denied doing so.
