09-08-2008, 07:36 PM
x-post of CAPEEM Update:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Friend,
Last month, the Discovery phase came to an end in CAPEEM's
lawsuit against the officials of the California Department of
Education (CDE) and members of the State Board of Education (SBE)
and we thought this would be a good time to give you an update on
the status of the case.
As you may recall, we first filed the lawsuit in March 2006
pointing out that SBE had adopted textbooks that not only
indoctrinated children with Abrahamic religions but also disparaged
Hinduism. In addition, CDE had used hostile advisers to advice them
on Hinduism had discriminated against Hindus during the adoption
process. The complaint was filed by Venkat Balasubramani, a Seattle
based attorney, and Mike Newdow, a Sacramento based attorney, joined
our legal team in late 2007.
Within a few months of filing our complaint, we had to overcome
two motions to dismiss our lawsuit. The Discovery Process began
towards the end of 2006 after the court ruled in our favor on the
second motion. We served a number of subpoenas to various parties
including textbook publishers, Hotmail, Dalit Freedom Network,
Michael Witzel, Stanley Wolpert, Charles Munger, Dalit Solidarity
Forum operating out of St. Alban's Church in New Jersey , and also
sought documents from the officials of CDE and SBE.
The subpoenas and discovery requests resulted in us obtaining
over 25,000 pages of documents. While we obtained several
incriminating documents, we had to file a motion to compel Michael
Witzel to part with documents he withheld. Witzel handed over many
documents before the scheduled hearing in court, but we did not
obtain his communications with third parties unrelated to the
dispute as the judge stated that they were not necessary for us to
make our case.
We appealed this ruling, and in July this year, the appeals
court reaffirmed the decision of the lower court and stated that we
had already been given most of what we had asked for. <b>However,
Witzel turned over some more documents including an email uncovering
the fact that the CDE had conducted a secret meeting that was
previously unheard of. This meeting with anti-Hindu groups was in
addition to the secret meeting that CDE had conducted with Witzel
and others.</b>
<b>Among the documents that we received from other sources, we
found extensive links between churches and key people involved in
the adoption process. The counsel for CDE was in touch with her
pastor and other emails showed that the CDE staff acted to assign
arbitrary dates to biblical events. Curriculum Commissioner Charles
Munger reported his victory to a member of his religious group and
also gave detailed instructions to the counsel of CDE on how to
handle questions regarding the description of the crucifixion of
Jesus.
</b>
We also uncovered a link between Michael Witzel and Dalit
Freedom Network (DFN), a group that operates out of a church in
Colorado . <span style='color:red'>Witzel coordinated his campaign with DFN and planned in
advance the details of what would be spoken at meetings. Witzel also
sent an email alerting DFN to the description of their organization
on Wikipedia and stated that whenever he erased the description, it
kept coming back. An office bearer of DFN followed up on this email
by saying that she did not want to "start being identified as a
missions organization" and wanted to know if they could edit it
themselves.
</span>
In March this year, we informed you that the court had rejected
the defendants' motion to dismiss the case. In that motion, the
defendants had alleged that we had the same interests as the Hindu
American Foundation (HAF) and were in privity with them. We argued
that we represented different interests and that the nature of our
lawsuit was different from the HAF lawsuit.
After we sent you that message, there has been a tremendous
amount of activity in the lawsuit. The defendants filed a motion to
reconsider the judgment and the judge once again ruled in our favor
saying that the defendants had merely rehashed their arguments.
In the past few weeks, we conducted a number of depositions.
Among those whom we deposed were CDE staff member Tom Adams, former
Chair of SBE Ruth Green, Curriculum Commissioner Charles Munger,
Michael Witzel and other staff members of CDE. We also obtained a
signed statement from CDE's expert Stanley Wolpert. After carefully
reviewing the data in our possession, we decided not to depose James
Heitzman as we determined that despite his bias, he was not that
important and we would gain nothing new from deposing him. Moreover,
the defendants' attorneys agreed to let us use documents related to
Heitzman as evidence without additional identification from him.
On our side, a director of CAPEEM and two parents whose names we
submitted as representative parents were deposed. The defendants
also deposed their own expert Prof. Shiva Bajpai.
Finally, we filed a motion to compel the defendants to hand over
a few more documents that were withheld. We withdrew the motion
after they agreed to give us the documents we sought from them.
The resource intensive Discovery Process came to an end a few
days ago and it would not have been possible for us to successfully
complete this phase without your support. Last year at this time, we
were short of funds and appealed to you for your support after
putting the case on hold and entering into settlement talks.
This week, as the case enters the next phase, we will put
forward the names of our experts and turn in their reports. Although
the Discovery phase was the most expensive part of the lawsuit, the
remaining part of the lawsuit will also use up substantial
resources. We look forward to your renewed support and hope you will
donate liberally and help make this case a success.
You can donate to CAPEEM by writing a check in favor of CAPEEM
and mailing it to
CAPEEM
PO Box 280442
Northridge , CA 91328
You can also donate online by going to http://www.capeem. org
and clicking on the link to donate. CAPEEM is a 501©(3) tax exempt
organization with tax ID 56-2565521.
Thank you,
Arvind Kumar
Director, California Parents for the Equalization of Educational
Materials<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Friend,
Last month, the Discovery phase came to an end in CAPEEM's
lawsuit against the officials of the California Department of
Education (CDE) and members of the State Board of Education (SBE)
and we thought this would be a good time to give you an update on
the status of the case.
As you may recall, we first filed the lawsuit in March 2006
pointing out that SBE had adopted textbooks that not only
indoctrinated children with Abrahamic religions but also disparaged
Hinduism. In addition, CDE had used hostile advisers to advice them
on Hinduism had discriminated against Hindus during the adoption
process. The complaint was filed by Venkat Balasubramani, a Seattle
based attorney, and Mike Newdow, a Sacramento based attorney, joined
our legal team in late 2007.
Within a few months of filing our complaint, we had to overcome
two motions to dismiss our lawsuit. The Discovery Process began
towards the end of 2006 after the court ruled in our favor on the
second motion. We served a number of subpoenas to various parties
including textbook publishers, Hotmail, Dalit Freedom Network,
Michael Witzel, Stanley Wolpert, Charles Munger, Dalit Solidarity
Forum operating out of St. Alban's Church in New Jersey , and also
sought documents from the officials of CDE and SBE.
The subpoenas and discovery requests resulted in us obtaining
over 25,000 pages of documents. While we obtained several
incriminating documents, we had to file a motion to compel Michael
Witzel to part with documents he withheld. Witzel handed over many
documents before the scheduled hearing in court, but we did not
obtain his communications with third parties unrelated to the
dispute as the judge stated that they were not necessary for us to
make our case.
We appealed this ruling, and in July this year, the appeals
court reaffirmed the decision of the lower court and stated that we
had already been given most of what we had asked for. <b>However,
Witzel turned over some more documents including an email uncovering
the fact that the CDE had conducted a secret meeting that was
previously unheard of. This meeting with anti-Hindu groups was in
addition to the secret meeting that CDE had conducted with Witzel
and others.</b>
<b>Among the documents that we received from other sources, we
found extensive links between churches and key people involved in
the adoption process. The counsel for CDE was in touch with her
pastor and other emails showed that the CDE staff acted to assign
arbitrary dates to biblical events. Curriculum Commissioner Charles
Munger reported his victory to a member of his religious group and
also gave detailed instructions to the counsel of CDE on how to
handle questions regarding the description of the crucifixion of
Jesus.
</b>
We also uncovered a link between Michael Witzel and Dalit
Freedom Network (DFN), a group that operates out of a church in
Colorado . <span style='color:red'>Witzel coordinated his campaign with DFN and planned in
advance the details of what would be spoken at meetings. Witzel also
sent an email alerting DFN to the description of their organization
on Wikipedia and stated that whenever he erased the description, it
kept coming back. An office bearer of DFN followed up on this email
by saying that she did not want to "start being identified as a
missions organization" and wanted to know if they could edit it
themselves.
</span>
In March this year, we informed you that the court had rejected
the defendants' motion to dismiss the case. In that motion, the
defendants had alleged that we had the same interests as the Hindu
American Foundation (HAF) and were in privity with them. We argued
that we represented different interests and that the nature of our
lawsuit was different from the HAF lawsuit.
After we sent you that message, there has been a tremendous
amount of activity in the lawsuit. The defendants filed a motion to
reconsider the judgment and the judge once again ruled in our favor
saying that the defendants had merely rehashed their arguments.
In the past few weeks, we conducted a number of depositions.
Among those whom we deposed were CDE staff member Tom Adams, former
Chair of SBE Ruth Green, Curriculum Commissioner Charles Munger,
Michael Witzel and other staff members of CDE. We also obtained a
signed statement from CDE's expert Stanley Wolpert. After carefully
reviewing the data in our possession, we decided not to depose James
Heitzman as we determined that despite his bias, he was not that
important and we would gain nothing new from deposing him. Moreover,
the defendants' attorneys agreed to let us use documents related to
Heitzman as evidence without additional identification from him.
On our side, a director of CAPEEM and two parents whose names we
submitted as representative parents were deposed. The defendants
also deposed their own expert Prof. Shiva Bajpai.
Finally, we filed a motion to compel the defendants to hand over
a few more documents that were withheld. We withdrew the motion
after they agreed to give us the documents we sought from them.
The resource intensive Discovery Process came to an end a few
days ago and it would not have been possible for us to successfully
complete this phase without your support. Last year at this time, we
were short of funds and appealed to you for your support after
putting the case on hold and entering into settlement talks.
This week, as the case enters the next phase, we will put
forward the names of our experts and turn in their reports. Although
the Discovery phase was the most expensive part of the lawsuit, the
remaining part of the lawsuit will also use up substantial
resources. We look forward to your renewed support and hope you will
donate liberally and help make this case a success.
You can donate to CAPEEM by writing a check in favor of CAPEEM
and mailing it to
CAPEEM
PO Box 280442
Northridge , CA 91328
You can also donate online by going to http://www.capeem. org
and clicking on the link to donate. CAPEEM is a 501©(3) tax exempt
organization with tax ID 56-2565521.
Thank you,
Arvind Kumar
Director, California Parents for the Equalization of Educational
Materials<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->