A turning point?

The Special Session came to an end for the evening at 2 am, as promised. Following Prescott, AUSG Secretary Colin Meiselman took the stand.

In this trial, the complainants have been focusing on two things: 1) Handverger has been a bad (possibly incompetent) Comptroller. 2) He may have lied about the number of hours he has worked.

The first point they seem to have done a good job of proving. However, they have not been convincing (at least not to me) in showing that his incompetence warrants removal from office. The second point has been harder to prove. Both Prescott and Meiselman claimed that there were hours in which Handverger claimed to have worked on his timesheet that he was not in the office. Handverger's response was that he was doing work elsewhere, such as cleaning out the AUTO vans. It would be very hard to prove that he actually lied, as it is was their word against his word.

Then, at about 1:52 am, a dramatic revelation occurred. Handverger has a habit of signing off his emails by including nicknames for himself as a joke. For example, he once signed as Matt "never drinking again" Handverger. Well on one particular day he signed as Matt "i lifegaurded all day yesterday from 11-8 and the first person to come outside was at 6:30. god my job is boring..." Handverger. He was referring to his lifegaurding job, where apparently he worked from 11 am-8 pm the day before. The problem with that is that his SG timesheet shows him working from 8:30 am-12:00 pm that same day. It would have been impossible for him to work at one job until 12:00, while starting work at another at 11:00. When questioned on this, Handverger suggested that it may have been a typo, but also said that he really had no idea why this discrepancy existed. Fortunately for him, the session came to an end, and he will have a day to consider it.

In my opinion, Handverger's job looked safe up until this point. Now, however, it seems very possible that he lied on his timesheet at least once, and that brings up a lot of problems for him. Let me stress however, that only the complainants witnesses have spoken to this point, and Handverger's side has yet to present a single one of their witnesses. There is a very, very long way to go in this trial. Things get back in gear tomorrow night at 11:15. Once again, I will not have my laptop, but I will do my best to update. Goodnight folks.