DA Overreaching?

In 2008, a fire resulted from a chemical reaction and a student lab assistant was killed.  Some time later, a UCLA chemistry professor was indicted, along with the Regents, by the Los Angeles District Attorney.  UCLA asserts that there was no willful crime committed and is providing for the defense of the professor.

In that case, there was substantial outside publicity and investigations by workplace safety authorities.  The matter was widely reported in the Los Angeles Times and other sources.

You may have seen yesterday’s Daily Bruin which carried a front page headline about the indictment by the DA of a former chair of the Poli Sci department on grounds that he had a conflict of interest when his wife was hired.  UCLA asserts that the hiring was legal and is again providing for the defense of the faculty member concerned.  Both faculty members, if convicted, could face prison time.  In the latter case, there was no external publicity – no headlines until the Bruin article.  So an interesting question is how such a matter would even come to the attention of the DA’s office.  Since UCLA asserts that there was no crime, the university itself would not have gone to the DA.

Maybe a more interesting question is what is going in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office?

The Bruin article is at
http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/02/ucla_political_science_professor_michael_lofchie_charged_with_felony

Update: A Facebook page of students in support of the faculty member most recently targeted by the DA was set up recently:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/305329222862782/