State will cover half of $830,000 settlement

A former math professor who was fired while on sick leave will receive a $830,000 settlement from the state and University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Board of Examiners agreed Tuesday to cover half the $830,000 settlement UNLV must pay the former professor.

Professor Michael Golberg was fired from his job while on extended sick leave without a hearing and sued for $1.2 million. He settled for $830,000.

"In a bastion of enlightenment and higher education, why would you not give someone due process?" Gov. Kenny Guinn asked.

University system counsel Tom Ray said the case results from a "unique set of facts."

"Our potential exposure was probably more than double that," he said of the settlement. Golberg was deprived of his job for 10 years.

The settlement was part of more than $1.1 million approved by the board Tuesday, mostly in claims against the state.

The next most expensive claim on the list is by Michael Oden, a mentally ill inmate at Southern Desert Correctional Center who was battered, raped and suffered extortion at the hands of inmate James Patterson.

Also on the list is the case of James Woods who was arrested in Indiana on a warrant issued by the Nevada Highway Patrol. The problem is that the man jailed at NHP's orders for 10 days is a white 39-year-old man - not the black 47-year-old who was actually wanted in the case.

The board agreed to pay Woods $15,000 for his false arrest and resulting legal bills.

And the board agreed to pay $60,000 to cover legal bills for a correctional officer accused of trying to beat confessions out of two inmates at Ely State Prison. Michael Scheel was acquitted of charges in the case. Fellow correctional officer Dave Rowel was convicted of the battery charge, and the state had to pay his legal bills too.