The new complaint also points out that Westfield State’s 2013 audit found no evidence of fraud and confirmed the school’s strong fiscal state under Dobelle’s leadership.
WESTFIELD - To spare Westfield State University from embarrassing publicity, then-president Evan S. Dobelle offered to resign in October, only to be rebuffed by the state’s higher education commissioner, according to new filings in Dobelle’s lawsuit.
During a 10-hour, closed-door meeting on Oct. 16, the trustees telephoned Higher Education Commissioner Richard M. Freeland to discuss the offer while Dobelle waited outside the board room. The commissioner responded that nothing short of Dobelle’s firing would be acceptable, Dobelle contends in an expanded complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Freeland could not be reached for comment Monday, and the complaint makes no reference to what, if anything, Dobelle sought in return for his resignation.
Later that night, the board voted to place Dobelle on paid leave, prompting him to file a lawsuit on Oct. 24 accusing the trustees, Freeland and others of violating his constitutional rights.
He resigned Nov. 8 as two state agencies and Westfield State trustees were investigating his spending on dozens of domestic and international trips, hotels, restaurants, limousines and other items.
The amended complaint repeats allegations from the original suit, which accuses Freeland and trustee chairman John F. Flynn III of orchestrating public outrage over Dobelle’s extensive travel, and then citing it to justify ousting him.
The new filing also uses events occurring after the lawsuit was filed to buttress Dobelle’s conspiracy allegations. It cites, for example, Freeland’s decision to recommend the restoration of $2 million in previously suspended funding to Westfield State after Dobelle’s resignation as proof of a deal between Freeland and the trustees.
“Freeland strong-armed ... the board into a into a quid pro quo arrangement in which over $2 million in funding was improperly withheld until Dr. Dobelle was terminated,” it states.
The new complaint also points out that Westfield State’s 2013 audit found no evidence of fraud and confirmed the school’s strong fiscal state under Dobelle’s leadership.
In his lawsuit and public statements, Dobelle has maintained that his travel - including visits to Cuba, China, Thailand, Spain, Vietnam and other countries, along with 15 trips to San Francisco - benefited the university.
In addition to Freeland and Flynn, defendants in the suit include the university itself; trustees Elizabeth Scheibel and Kevin Queenin; the Braintree-based auditing firm of O’Connor & Drew; and Rubin and Rudman, the Boston law firm representing the university.
Earlier this month, the defendants filed a motion asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth P. Neiman to throw out the suit, noting that Dobelle voluntarily resigned from his position. Their response to the new filing is due Jan. 7.
In a related development, Dobelle’s lawyer, Ross H. Garber of Hartford, said his client filed suit Monday in Hampden Superior Court to collect legal fees and costs from the five-month battle over Dobelle’s tenure. The trustees have a question pending with the state attorney general over who is responsible for the bill.
The school is already facing more than $500,000 in bills from Fish & Richardson, a Boston law firm hired in September to guide the school’s response to the state inspector general’s probe of spending by Dobelle and others.
The state attorney general’s office is conducting a parallel investigation, focusing in part on the finances of the non-profit Westfield State Foundation.