DATE: Friday, October 17, 1997              TAG: 9710170656

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   63 lines

ROBERTSON'S LAWYER ASKS COURT TO DISMISS LIBEL LAWSUIT MAGISTRATE IS LIKELY TO RULE ON THE FORMER REGENT PROFESSORS' SUIT IN ABOUT A MONTH.

A federal magistrate on Thursday heard arguments to dismiss the defamation lawsuit against Pat Robertson and Regent University brought by two former Regent law school professors.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tommy E. Miller made no decision on the motion Thursday but took the matter under advisement. Miller is expected to rule in about a month, said one of the attorneys in the case.

The professors - Robert Bern and Jeffrey Tuomala - are suing over a scathing 1994 letter that Robertson wrote about nine rebellious law professors, including the two plaintiffs. The letter compared them with the Branch Davidians and cult leader Jim Jones, called them ``inept as lawyers'' and ``extremist fanatics.''

A similar dismissal motion in state court was rejected by Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. more than a year ago. Hanson called parts of the letter ``pretty damaging'' to the professors' reputations, but he said it was up to a jury to decide whether they are libelous.

Since then Bern and Tuomala have transferred their complaint to federal court because both no longer live in Virginia. A third former law professor who still lives in the state, Paul J. Morken, is suing Robertson and Regent University in state court on the same defamation claim.

On Thursday, Robertson attorney David Ventker argued the lawsuit should be thrown out because the letter merely stated Robertson's opinions about the professors and did not represent statements of fact. He also said that Robertson used figures of speech that should not be taken literally.

The only way the letter is libelous, he said, is if you ``turn the letter on its ear, twist it, chop it up, and give it meaning that is not apparent on its face.''

He said the letter was produced during an ``internal power struggle'' at Regent in which Robertson was making a personal response to an attack on the university's law school that ``he fought so hard to defend.''

The statements in the letter cannot be verified because ``there is no objective standard that says it is true or is false,'' Ventker said.

But Jeremiah A. Denton III, who represents Bern and Tuomala, said that some of the statements about his clients can be shown to be false, such as the comparison to Jim Jones, the cult leader who helped hundreds of his followers commit suicide in South America in the late 1970s.

``We can objectively prove that these claimants are not like Jim Jones and his followers,'' Denton said.

And because of the professors' good performance while employed at the university, ``we can show that Regent itself did not consider these gentlemen incapable teachers of law,'' Denton said.

Miller denied two other motions, one brought by Denton and the other by Dean Buckius, an attorney for Regent University.

Denton wanted to have Robertson's law firm disqualified from the case because one of Denton's witnesses - Norfolk attorney and Regent University graduate Robert L. O'Donnell - is in the firm. Miller said O'Donnell's testimony was not ``necessary'' to the claimants' case.

Buckius wanted the exact defamatory language in the letter listed in a way that would separate it from the rest of the letter. Miller said the complaint was sufficient for Robertson to frame a response without any addition to the statement. KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT PAT ROBERTSON REGENT UNIVERSITY

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