# New light shed on Otero epithet case; Officials, students clarify circumstances
## Sources say sophomore Ehrman did not make comments 
### 
New sources have come forward indicating
that sophomore Michael Ehrman did not
make homophobic remarks directed at Otero
Resident Fellow Dennis Matthies, as was
reported in The Daily in articles on Monday
and Tuesday. The Daily regrets the error.
One of the students at Otero on the night of
Jan. 19, Bret Scher, said yesterday that
Ehrman "never opened his mouth."
Scher had not been implicated in the incident.
In a letter given to The Daily on Jan. 31,
Dean of Students Michael Jackson described
an incident involving three students. "[W]hen
they reached the RF cottage they yelled: 'Fag
got! You are going to die of AIDS. You're going
to get what's coming to you, you're going to
get what's coming to you. Damn faggot!"
But Jackson said last night, "The first two
guys (Scher and Ehrman) basically said they
didn't say anything."

"I'm not sure if what they said [to Rickfordl
is the truth,"he said.
Judicial Affairs Officer Sally Cole said Mon
day the decision to make the incident public
came after extended discussion by University
officials.
She said, "I hope people view it as a positive
example of appropriate ways to respond to
offensive conduct that cannot be regulated by
a judicial process."
Jackson said last night that the Universi
ty's investigation failed to determine exactly
who said what during the incident.
The Daily reported on Monday that William
Shepherd, the head advising associate in
Otero, said, "I watched the three of them walk
... to Madera. The entire time, one of them
continued to scream comments, including,
'Faggot! Hope you die of AIDS'...
Shepherd said that he made it clear to Uni

versity officials when he was contacted by
them that he had "no idea who said what."
First-year law student Keith Rabois, who
was part of the group of three students, said
one of them said things "reasonably close" to
Jackson's description of the statements.
Rabois told The Daily Sunday night the
comments were "mostly about faggots being
bad in general."
"I'm a first-year law student," Rabois said.
"I know exactly what you can say and what
you can't."
Flyers were posted at the Law School Mon
day night that showed a crossed-out picture of
Rabois, along with the words "Homophobia is
Ugly." The flyers have since been taken down.
A poster also circulated among the law stu
dents, inviting them to write comments.
Almost all of the comments
expressed anger or embarrass
ment.
Several law students said yes
terday that they acknowledged
free speech rights, but said com
ments like the epithets had no
place at the University.
"We're just generally out
raged," said second-year law stu
dent Tim Teter.
The incident has raised ques
tions about the controversial
Grey interpretation of the Funda
mental Standard, which limits

certain kinds of offensive speech.
For several reasons, the inter
pretation was not relevant to the
comments made Jan. 19.
The most important reason
was that Matthies was not home
at the time the student made the
homophobic comments, as had
previously been thought. The
speech code only prohibits face-to
face discriminatory harassment
intended to injure an individual.
Jackson's letter to The Daily
said the epithets were "mostly
directed at the Resident Fellow."
He did not note that Matthies was
not home at the time the remarks
were made.
Even if Matthies was home,
the comments could not have led

to a successful University prose
cution because the code only pro
hibits speech between students,
not between a student and a fac
ulty member, according to the
Grey interpretation.
Judicial Affairs Officer Sally
Cole said the "ambiguity" in the
interpretation needs to be "clari
fied" and that she and Jackson
will send a report about the situa
tion to Kennedy.
Cole said she wasn't sure
whether the interpretation had
been intended to be limited to stu
dents only. "When it was legislat
ed in 1990 by the [Student Con
duct Legislative Council], the
issue just never came up," she
said.