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Teacher gains ground in hearing
By ROBERT KING, Times Staff Writer
Administrative law judge Diane Cleavinger told attorneys in Gatti's latest case that giving gifts to students is something teachers just do. She said the state Department of Education, which brought the case and listed gift purchases among its complaints against Gatti, probably doesn't want to outlaw giving. "I don't think the (department) would ever want to take that type of carte blanche position," Cleavinger said. Her comments seem to put to rest one of the issues in the formal complaint currently against Gatti -- that Gatti's purchase of gifts such as a pass was part of an inappropriate relationship he maintained with Coy Burge, a former Powell Middle School student. Even Wiley Horton, the education department's attorney in this case, told the judge he likely won't press that complaint when it comes time to summarize the case based on the evidence he's seen so far. "If it's helpful," he told the judge, "that part is like a tempest in a teapot." Gatti may have won a victory on another front Tuesday, too. Attorneys for both sides agreed to let Burge's testimony from Gatti's 1998 reinstatement hearing stand for his testimony now. That testimony was already deemed not credible by the judge who ruled in the 1998 case. So, would another administrative judge decide 31/2 years later that the same testimony was credible? Horton said he's seen it happen before. But Gatti attorney Mark Herdman said such a conclusion would seem hard to imagine. Still, Herdman didn't leave it to chance. He quizzed Burge on Tuesday about inconsistencies in his old testimony and plans to resume the task today. As was the case in 1998, Burge admitted he had a habit of lying. And again he gave testimony that was immediately shown by Gatti's attorney to conflict with earlier statements. But Burge, now 20, offered some new tidbits, too. He said Gatti talked him into going skinny dipping when they were at a summer camp in Vermont. (Gatti denied that in testimony Monday.) Burge said several campers were there, too, because it was a summer camp tradition. Burge also said he spoke to Gatti by phone from a friend's house in 1996 when everyone else -- his parents and police -- were looking for him after his most recent runaway episode. (Gatti testified Monday that they had no such contact.) Two days in, the central focus of this case against Gatti is whether he was undermining the rights of Burge's parents. More specifically, attorneys for both sides say it is about Gatti's actions following the boy's flight from a Pasco runaway shelter. At one point Tuesday, Burge even said he was tailoring his latest testimony to fit that central concern. Burge, who was sequestered outside the hearing room on the first day of testimony, said he learned the case was less about sex and more about custody issues by reading newspaper accounts of the case. His stepmother, Deborah Burge, testified Tuesday that Gatti wouldn't leave her family alone after she told him to go away. John Shepherd, the head administrator at Springstead High's west campus, testified that he witnessed that directive. Deborah Burge said Gatti disregarded other directives, including that Coy receive no gifts he didn't earn under an incentive plan they had agreed to. She also said Gatti took Coy to an Orlando theme park when Coy was supposed to be grounded. Much of the parental interference issue revolves around the month of October 1996, when Coy was living with the family of Peady O'Connor, a close friend of Gatti's. O'Connor testified Tuesday that she and Gatti were merely trying to give the boy a stable home -- apart from the explosive tempers at his home -- when they arranged Coy's stay in her home. Herdman, Gatti's attorney, contends the Burges had basically forgotten about Coy after they turned him over to the O'Connors, making Deborah Burge's complaints about interference moot. To that end, Coy Burge acknowledged that he heard little from his parents and saw them even less during his stay at the O'Connors. His stepmother said the arrangement helped her avoid confrontations with Coy. The idea was that having him stay with the O'Connors, instead of under her roof, would keep him from running away again. Still, Deborah Burge said O'Connor and Gatti failed in an important regard: They didn't meet her request to consult her on important issues.
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