There is an interesting case at my alma mater, Northwestern University School of Law, where a former student is suing over his expulsion shortly before his graduation. The student is Mauricio Celis, 42, and he was expelled for not disclosing that he is a former felon in Texas who was convicted for falsely holding himself out as a lawyer as well as a misdemeanor conviction of portraying himself as a police officer in a bizarre case involving a woman who wandered nude from his hot tub and walked into a convenience store. Celis objects that Northwestern expelled him for the failure to disclose but that it never asked him to disclose any criminal history when he applied for his master of laws. After suing Northwestern, Celis and Northwestern agreed to a voluntary dismissal of the suit.
The case is obviously embarrassing for Northwestern which appeared to do no inquiry into the history of the applicant who was infamous in Texas and called “The Great Pretender.” Indeed, a prosecutor called him “the biggest con man in the history of Nueces County.” Before he was nabbed, he ran offices in eight cities, including Beverly Hills, Miami, and Mexico City. He was a major Democratic donor with contributions of nearly half a million dollars to Democratic political campaigns from 2002 to 2007.
His past difficulties include a long series of fraudulent representations, flashing a pistol during an argument with the owner of a local strip club, breaking into a girlfriend’s apartment and flashing an expired reserve deputy’s badge in three different encounters with police. Here is an account of the hot tub incident that gives a glimpse into Celis:
The position of Northwestern is that Celis should have known that his criminal history was material. Yet, the school did not require the information and took his money for the educational program. Indeed, he spent about $76,000 on the program and the school presumably kept the money and tossed him shortly before graduation.
The failure to even google the applicant shows how schools continue to rely on an “honors system” even among the top law programs in the country. Northwestern came within weeks of giving an advance degree to the “Great Pretender” of Texas.
Of course, the graduation would have made for a classic procession tune.
Source: Chicago Tribune
saucy – last one is for you. BTW, close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.
Sorry, that last one was meant for Paul.
A link between bipolar disorder and suicide, sure. A link between bipolar disorder and being a sexual fiend, puleeze. If anything, it causes a lessening of desire.
Bill Clinton, JFK, Wilt Chamberlain, and Magic Johnson are not sufferers of bipolar disorder. Gaëtan Dugas was gay, so different rules apply.
I think Plath belongs in the 27-club, along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison (and his common-law wife, Pamela Courson), and Kurt Cobain. She only missed by three years.
And your experience for bipolar comes from? I did not say she was a sex fiend only that she had multiple partners. And I think the PC phrase is ‘sex addict.” 🙂
Thanks Bill.
Annie,
I know where you’re coming from. Some of these commenters seem straight out of 1950’s Central Casting right-wingers who would have characterized them selves as moderate anti-Communists, not half-informed Tea Partiers with 3rd grade critical thinking and reasoning skills.
If you want to make someone mad, tell them a lie. If you want to make them furious, tell them the truth.
Go Secure. You’re doing great.
bill – fyi I got a well-deserved A in my graduate Critical Thinking class.
Laser, I pride myself on raising my four children on my own after my husband’s death. I worked my tail off as an LPN for many years. I went back to school and obtained my BSN and then my MSN, while working full time and putting kids through college and helping put one through law school. When my honor is called into question by less than honorable people time after time, it begins to wear on a person. Perhaps it has made me suspicious of two certain commenters here, but again when one has been maligned, one tends to become overly sensitive and alert to veiled taunts.
Keep fighting the good fight Laser.
Paul;
I’ve been where you are (until Meteor Blades of DailyKos compelled me to open my eyes). A die-hard Christian RW fanatic with tone deaf ears to liberals.
Also, I do find your honesty a good character trait;
but frown upon the bad form your bias projects.
I would suggest that you curtail your forthrightness somewhat. Though I do not ever want honesty to compromise; I do now understand the wisdom of honey and vinegar – even when being truthful.
All of us, seeing our other having a bad day (say a demise of a friend from afar), would not rush to condemning judgment and blurt out “honestly” to a beloved cook that you frugged up horribly in cooking the meatloaf.
We’d simply just push the plate aside and ask the wife to take a drive.
Annie;
Yes. I love the world and people for what they can be;
but get disappointed (much) and the way things are.
In spite of losing career upon high and becoming homeless as a result of my battles against Romney’s RICO gang, tyranny, cronyism and corruption
I still believe in good people (as exhibited here and FB)
seeking justice (civilly) each and every day.
Annie – the last time you were questioning my credentials, I was not questioning yours.
Annie – as far as I know you have an MSN from Marquette. Don’t you?
Saucy – there is some thought that Plath was manic depressive. As such her drive would have pushed her to multiple partners. And also to her suicide.
Paul, now you are misrepresenting how I responded to your 1:13 taunt. If you think I responded in a positive manner to you, you completely misread me. If your 1:13 wasn’t a taunt and a perfectly honest truism, I apologize, BUT with the number of times you and your buddy have made veiled and sometimes not so veiled taunts regarding my nursing credentials, I mistrust most anything you utter. That is the consequence of bullying someone online.
I doubt that these comments will stay up and will probably be deleted by Professor Turley, but you and your buddy need to know I won’t stand for you both besmirching my honor and my nursing credentials. You trusted information that your buddy gave you offline and since that time, you both have gone out of your way to make taunts, based on his LIE to you. He thinks he has information about my nursing credentials based on his snooping into my private life, he does not have all the information and has made allegations based on his assumptions. Poor sleuthing skills.
Paul wrote “latest take on Sylvia is the her husband Ted something actually had no part in her suicide”
Could be; I am certainly no Plath scholar. It just annoyed me that her admirers blamed her husband when she clearly had major emotional issues.
And for the others reading: yes, I think Wilt Chamberlain, Gaëtan Dugas, and more than a few male politicians are all slimeballs for the same reason.
Paul ~
Jonathan – what does “flossing an expired reserve deputy’s badge” have to do with going to law school?
I snorted at that obvious auto correct too.
paulette – actually, my first thought was “How does one floss a badge?” It just didn’t seem feasible.
Paul, I would appreciate it if you didn’t address me further today.
Saucy,
Yes, it is the 1:13 comment NOT the 1:34 comment. I took the 1:13 comment as a taunt based on past taunts regarding my nursing credentials. I may be mistaken, it could’ve been perfectly honest, but coming from who made it, no, I don’t think so. End of issue.
Annie – first you responded positively to what you now refer to as a taunt. Then you responded positively to me again. Then suddenly you decide that the comment you had responded positively to, is now a taunt. Then it is about your nursing credentials, which were never mentioned until you mentioned them. And what the heck would all that have to do with your nursing credentials anyway?
Paul wrote “didn’t Sylvia commit suicide?”
There’s a very good reason why my nom de guerre is “saucy.”
Plath did indeed kill herself, but earlier in her life she went though a period of several years where she slept with a different guy each night (regards my history crack). Then she got married and *I believe* she lorded that fact over her husband. Her biographers blame her husband for her suicide, but I think she was really screwed up before she met him.
saucy – I think the latest take on Sylvia is the her husband Ted something actually had no part in her suicide and had probably prevented several earlier attempts.
Annie, I think you made an error in your previous comment. I can see how 1:34 could be a taunt, but you referenced 1:13. I agreed with you before on the subject of nursing; unless one works in the medical profession, one cannot really understand it (like most professions).
Laser – I have always admitted I have certain biases. We all do. That does not mean I am wrong, just that I have a bias and you just take that into consideration. You have certain biases which I take into consideration. I cannot think of one person who comments here who does not have a bias? Can you?
Saucy, it could be a perfectly innocent truism, but his 1:34 comment has been made to me before in slightly different words and it alludes to my nursing credentials. This is something that has been thrown at me here on this blog before by two certain commenters and I’m sick of it. That would be the history and it’s made me very sensitive to such comments by these two.
Annie – did I say anything about your nursing credentials?