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Judge says plagiarism is a plot against himBy CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published July 22, 2003
TAMPA - Implying there is an elaborate scheme to disgrace him, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder denied Monday that he is the author of a plagiarized research paper that bears his signature. Asked who might be out to get him, Holder did not name names. But he said, "I've made enemies. I think everyone knows that. I've taken positions that have resulted in cataclysmic change." Holder, 49, has a reputation as a courthouse whistle blower who in recent years helped topple three of the county's most powerful judges. But the state panel that regulates judges is now accusing Holder of cribbing a paper he submitted during a 1998 course at MacDill Air Force Base. The course helped Holder, a reservist in the U.S. Air Force, to win a promotion to colonel. The accusations raise the question of which scenario is more plausible. If the charges are true, Holder, a West Point graduate who holds dear his public image of probity, chose to risk his name - along with his military and judicial career - to save a few hours of work on a paper. If the charges are false, an unnamed enemy loathes Holder enough, and is Machiavellian enough, to snare him in an ingenious frameup involving fabricated documents and a forged or pasted signature. According to Holder and his attorneys, it started in January 2002 with an anonymously sent envelope slipped under the door of federal prosecutor Jeffrey Del Fuoco at the St. Petersburg office he used as a U.S. Army reservist. In the envelope were two research papers. The first was a 17-page paper submitted in 1996 by E. David Hoard as a requirement for an Air Force Air War College seminar. The paper analyzed the Anglo-American bombing offensive in Europe during World War II. The second paper in the envelope was 21-page report on the same subject, with many of its phrases lifted verbatim from Hoard's work. According to the cover sheet, it was submitted by Holder in 1998 for credit at Air War College. It bears a signature Holder admits resembles his own. Holder said he did submit a paper to the Air War College during a 1997-98 seminar he attended at MacDill Air Force Base, but it was not the one attributed to him by the anonymous tipster. "I have absolutely no knowledge of where this paper came from," Holder said of the work that is supposedly his. Holder said he cannot find the report he actually wrote and submitted, despite an exhaustive search of his computers and disks. Nor can he produce a hard copy. The Air War College did not keep a copy, he said, nor did two lawyers to whom he sent it. The Judicial Qualifications Commission, the panel that oversees judges, acquired the two reports from the anonymously sent envelope and determined there was probable cause to believe Holder committed plagiarism. It is not clear whether Del Fuoco passed the envelope to the JQC, either directly or indirectly. Both the JQC and Del Fuoco declined to comment for this story. "Who was the source of those documents - we don't know," said attorney Greg Kehoe, who represents Holder. "If someone wanted to wreak havoc on the judge's life, there was really no risk involved." Holder acknowledged that he was in possession of Hoard's research paper while preparing his own. Holder said Hoard, an acquaintance, faxed it to him so he could copy the proper format. Holder's former judicial assistant, Lorraine Nasco, backs up the judge's story. In an affidavit in June, she said she typed Holder's research paper on her computer. Having reviewed the paper attributed to Holder in the JQC investigation, Nasco wrote, "I do not recognize the paper which is supposed to be Judge Holder's as the one I typed for him." While the military will not comment on Holder's case, Holder said the Air Force reprimanded him in April 2003 over the plagiarism allegation and has suspended him as a judge advocate general. Hoard, an Air Force reservist who works as a lawyer at the Pentagon, said Monday he researched his paper for the Air War College at the Arlington Public Library. "It was a no-brainer," said Hoard, 55. "It was not a difficult exercise to do. Of Air War College, this was the easiest exercise to do. It probably took me a maximum of eight hours to write it." He remembers faxing it to Holder, saying, "I gave it to Greg and three or four other people. It wouldn't be unusual. Some people publish them. There's nothing secret about what you write." He added, "My nose is clean, and I really hope in my heart that these allegations (against Holder) are not true, but I don't know and I can't say." Depending on who you ask, Holder is either a brave critic of ethical lapses at the courthouse, or a self-righteous tattletale. He advocated investigations against Judge Edward Ward, who was accused of sexual harassment, and Judge Robert Bonanno, who was discovered in Holder's office after hours. Ward and Bonanno resigned, as did Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez after a probe into his handling of the scandals. - Christopher Goffard can be reached at 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com
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