Submitted by philip on
By Kelly Boggs, Message Editor
PINEVILLE – Joe Aguillard, former president of Louisiana College, recently contacted the Baptist Message to inform the publication a judge agreed with a motion, filed by Aguillard, that he be dismissed from a lawsuit filed by Timothy “Tim” Johnson, a former LC vice-president.
Johnson’s lawsuit was filed on March 11 in the 9th District Court in Alexandria. The suit named both Aguillard and LC as defendants.
The suit alleges that Aguillard misled the LC board concerning a $10-million donation for a building to be built on the Pineville campus. In the lawsuit Johnson maintains Aguillard was aware money for the construction of the facility would not be forthcoming but led the board to believe the funding was intact.
Johnson’s lawsuit also alleges that Aguillard improperly used funds designated for LC’s Caskey School of Divinity for projects related to LC Tanzania, an educational initiative unrelated to the divinity school.
As a result of the alleged deceptions, Johnson’s suit indicates he filed a whistle-blower complaint, per LC’s policies, against Aguillard, “On or about Dec. 9, 2012.”
The complaint, according to the suit, was due to Aguillard’s failure to meet the college’s expectations of “high standards of business and personal ethics.”
Johnson’s lawsuit contends that Aguillard retaliated against him because of the whistle-blower complaint. Among the retaliatory actions taken against Johnson by Aguillard, alleged in the suit, were an uncharacteristic poor performance evaluation and the failure to renew the former vice-president’s employment contract.
The performance review in question was conducted sometime during the middle of Johnson’s contract year and occurred within days of Aguillard learning about the whistle-blower complaint, according to the lawsuit.
All of Johnson’s previous performance evaluations were conducted annually so as to coincide with the date of his contract and, according to the lawsuit, were perfect scores.
Aguillard, who was recently given the title of president emeritus by the LC Board of Trustees, sent the Baptist Message, via email, the court ruling wherein he was dismissed from the suit. The judge agreed to a motion filed by Aguillard.
The motion filed by Aguillard, a “Preemptory Exception Of No Cause Of Action On Behalf of Joe Aguillard,” asked that he be dismissed from the lawsuit.
The motion initiated by Aguillard argued, in part, that he should be dismissed from the suit because “… Dr. Aguillard was not Mr. Johnson’s employer, nor was there any contract… between Dr. Aguillard and Mr. Johnson; Dr. Aguillard was, undisputedly, a co-employee of Louisiana College performing within the course and scope of said employment.”
To sum up, Aguillard’s motion asked the court to dismiss him from the lawsuit because he [Aguillard] was not Johnson’s employer; rather Louisiana College was the actual employer.
Aguillard also provided the Message with a document relating to the motion that stated, “Timothy Johnson, has no opposition to this Court sustaining the aforesaid Exception” that sought to dismiss the former LC president from the suit.
“The suit that I filed was brought against my former employer,” Johnson said in an email to the Baptist Message. “Dr. Aguillard continually and habitually had presented himself as being the final authority on all matters relating to Louisiana College – to the extent that he named himself, rather than the College, as the employer of college employees.” Johnson added, “Since he had declared himself employer, he was named in the lawsuit.”
The Baptist Message published a report in its March 13 issue of a conversation, surreptitiously recorded, between Aguillard and a former employee. The statements heard on the recording were later confirmed by Aguillard to be accurate.
“I am the employer, and I sign your contract, “Aguillard is heard saying on the recording. “You don’t work for the college. The college is not an employer. I am the employer, and I sign your contract. You don’t work for the college. The college is not an employer. It’s a place of work. The employer is me, and the employee is you.”
In an interview with The Town Talk, after the recording had been made public, Aguillard told Alexandria’s daily newspaper that he stood by the statements made in the recording. “I say those things every day,” he said. “I am the employer… I’m president. I run the school. I answer to the Board of Trustees.”
Aguillard said in a recent interview with The Town Talk that he stands by his comments about being the employer, saying in that context he was referring to himself as a boss.
“As any court can tell you, an individual can tell an employee they are the employer meaning that he or she is the boss,” Aguillard said according to The Town Talk. “That does not change the law governing employer/employee relationships. They are the overseer, supervisor, employer, the czar, the head, whatever the title. I certainly stand by (the conversation). I was her (the employee’s) boss. Everyone has a boss. Boss is synonymous with employer.”
The Baptist Message asked Aguillard for a comment concerning the judge’s ruling. He responded via email with the following:
“Secret recordings among Christians, then manipulated and used months or years later to hurt someone else should never be part of our Christian walk. That was the genesis for this suit.
“Law suits should be last resorts when unable to resolve a problem through all other measures. But suits between Christian brothers are especially difficult.
“In our case, I believe that the court realized that there was no standing for the charges, that there was not standing to sue me, and I think that the Lord led in the Judge’s dismissal of Br. [sic] Tim Johnson’s suit against me. A confidential employee evaluation for actions antithetical to policy and contract are not grounds for a suit. I continue to love and pray for him and his family and pray for resolution of a once strong friendship. As Christians, we have to believe that God can do this.”
Johnson’s lawsuit and Aguillard’s motion may be viewed by visiting the Baptist Message website atwww.baptistmessage.com.
In response to Aguillard being dropped as a defendant in his lawsuit, which Johnson indicated is very much still active, Johnson said in an email to the Baptist Message, “Once he [Aguillard] acknowledged that he was not the employer but rather an employee of the College, which meant that his prior public statements to the contrary were untrue, we had no objections to him being dismissed from the lawsuit.”
Johnson added, “Had Dr. Aguillard not made his untrue pronouncements that he was the employer, he never would have been named in my lawsuit.”