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I bet Garry Scarff made that assault up to extort money from the
university. I am also very sure that he made up being Jewish.
I asked him to document him being Jewish but he of course failed to do
so.
My guess is Jewish decent goes back trillions of years, and his Jewish
family actually is from another planet.
Barbara Schwarz
PAST ARCHIVED FEATURES
By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
A former UCLA employee is bringing his case of battery and wrongful
termination before the Los Angeles Superior Court after he said
repeated requests for an official response from the university were
not met.
Garry Scarff, who worked as a debt management counselor in the Student
Collections Office, alleged his manager, Salwa Ayoub, struck him in
the face with a collections file Sept. 20.
But the the UC Board of Regents maintains that Scarff's allegations
are incredible.
"We don't agree that the claim is valid and that the description of
the facts are accurate," said Christopher Patti, university counsel
for the UC Regents.
Scarff's attorney, John Dean, said he's not surprised at the UC's
response.
"It wouldn't be the first time that would be the employer's position,"
he said.
Although the case was rejected by the L.A. City Attorney's Office on
Nov. 27 due to insufficient evidence and little likelihood of
conviction, Dean filed a new lawsuit against Ayoub and the UC Regents
on March 22 in the L.A. Superior Court.
Ayoub, who would not comment on the case, and the UC were served court
summons March 30 and April 3, respectively.
Dean said the fact that university police submitted its findings of
the investigation on Nov. 27 demonstrates that the police believed a
crime had been committed.
"I feel very confident about the case," Dean said. "After all, the
police only send a case to the City Attorney's Office if they feel
there's a case."
According to Patti, the university is required by statute to defend
its own employees who are sued as a result of actions carried out
during the course of their employment.
There are, however, narrow exceptions.
"Employees engaged in fraud or malicious conduct would not be defended
by the university," Patti said.
Albert Brewster, senior paralegal for the UC Regents General Counsel,
said only in the case a manager does something within the course and
scope of their duties would the UC provide defense.
"But if he were to shoot an employee or commit criminal battery, then
the UC wouldn't defend the individual," Brewster said.
As a standard procedure, Scarff's case was referred to the Office of
Risk Management and is currently being processed.
"The office manages insurance coverage to see if (the case) is worth
settling or fighting," Brewster said.
The university may also retain outside counsel, Brewster said, but
UCLA campus counsel does not handle litigation matters.
Under Ayoub's supervision, Scarff was hired in the Collections Office
Aug. 28. On Sept. 29 nine days after he alleges Ayoub hit him in the
face Scarff filed a charge of battery with university police and
UCLA's Human Resources Department.
Hours later, Scarff said, Ayoub terminated him from his position.
Under federal and state law, according to Dean, an employer may not
retaliate against an employee who complains about wrongful, illegal
and/or discriminatory conduct.
The bottom line, Dean said, is that his client was fired after
complaining about the alleged assault.
"That's tortious termination," Dean said. "That's illegal."
In a letter to the university last fall, Dean contended the events
surrounding the suit were motivated by anti-Semitism. Scarff is Jewish
and Ayoub is of Syrian ancestry.
"In light of the political and religious struggle that is currently
taking place in the Middle East, UCLA's and Ms. Ayoub's behavior in
this regard is particularly disturbing," he stated in the letter.
For the past three months, Scarff said he and his attorney have been
waiting for an official response from the university regarding the
incident.
"They have responded to my attorney ... on several occasions that they
were investigating the complaint," Scarff said in an e-mail. "After
three months, they claim to still be investigating the assault."
Because Scarff is filing for punitive damages, Patti said the suit
constitutes a civil rather than criminal action.
An out of court settlement in a case like this is evaluated by counsel
throughout the course of the investigation, Patti said.
"If we find out something different, we might agree to a resolution of
the case to rid the expense of the litigation," he said. "Generally,
we tend not to settle, but sometimes we settle for small amounts."
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