Fired WSU official: I broke no laws

Ryan Fendley was part of a federal work-visa investigation.

An administrator fired amid an ongoing criminal probe of Wright State University’s use of a work visa program said in court Monday he had broken no laws, and the university’s former president admitted he personally had no evidence to the contrary.

The hearing was in the civil lawsuit brought by Ryan Fendley alleging that Wright State failed to provide him a required nine months of notice before terminating him in 2015, shortly after the federal investigation became public.

The suit seeks nine months of pay and benefits totaling more than $150,000.

“Did you ever violate any laws in connection with your employment with Wright State?” Fendley’s attorney, Theodore Copetas, asked him under oath.

“No,” Fendley responded, answering the same to whether he ever violated any rules or regulations.

Copetas argued that Wright State had every right to terminate Fendley, but could only deprive him of the required notice if they could demonstrate “just cause.”

WSU attorneys argued former President David Hopkins, who was sitting at the defense table, was led to believe Fendley was about to be indicted for allegedly violating federal immigration law.

The federal investigation into WSU’s use of the H-1B visa program became public in mid2015 when Fendley was suspended along with the provost, a researcher and the school’s chief general counsel.

Fendley was the only one fired. The attorney retired with a separation agreement. The provost and researcher lost their administrative jobs but remain on paid leave as faculty more than two years later, as the investigation continues.

Hopkins testified that he took action after he and a university attorney met with U.S. attorneys at their office in Dayton for an hour.

“My impression was that three individuals employed by Wright State had conspired to commit visa fraud and my decision at that point, I thought, was for the best interest of the university to remove all three from their administrative positions,” he said.

Hopkins was prevented from testifying about exactly what U.S. attorneys told him that led him to that decision; the evidence was rejected by Magistrate Holly Shaver as secondhand “hearsay.”

Hopkins said Wright State didn’t conduct its own investigation of the allegations because they didn’t want to get in the way of the feds.

For that reason, they had no documented evidence he had done anything wrong.

But WSU attorney Lee Ann Rabe