Indicted former CSN professor may sue to get job back
The attorney for a former College of Southern Nevada professor said all options are on the table after the state Board of Regents on Friday took no action regarding his employment appeal.
Attorney Harold Gewerter said he plans to file suit in state or federal court next week on behalf of Mark Peplowski, who was a professor in the social sciences department at CSN for nearly 23 years before being fired in February.
“We have to go somewhere since they could not make a decision,” Gewerter said. “We cannot leave it alone. Mark will be vindicated and he’ll get his job back. That’s what we’re looking for. We think he was treated unfairly by the school — very unfairly by the school.”
Gewerter said that there is a relationship between CSN’s decision to terminate him and the gross lewdness charges that Peplowski, also a Las Vegas attorney, faces.
He was indicted Thursday on two gross misdemeanor counts of open or gross lewdness, just two weeks after the same charges were thrown out in Las Vegas Justice Court.
“They re-filed something just yesterday which we feel is highly improper,” Gewerter said.
James Martines, interim vice chancellor for legal affairs at the Nevada System of Higher Education, said that Margo Martin, then-acting president of CSN, terminated Peplowski’s employment on Feb. 2 on a recommendation of a special hearing committee.
He then filed an appeal.
Regents heard Peplowski’s employment appeal in a two-hour closed session on Friday. Board chairman Kevin Page and regents Mark Doubrava and Andrea Anderson, recused themselves from the closed hearing because of former business dealings with Peplowski.
Regent J.T. Moran said his campaign has worked with Peplowski, but Moran did not abstain from attending the session, and Regent Sam Lieberman said that he’s known Peplowski and his family for years, but remained for the session.
The regents’ deliberations in open session consisted of several failed motions.
The first motion made by Regent Rick Trachok asked the board to consider imposing a lesser sentence on Peplowski — suspension without pay — until the spring 2019 semester, but it failed.
Regent Carol Del Carlo’s move to affirm CSN’s decision to fire Peplowski also failed.
Trachok followed up with another motion to suspend Peplowski without pay until the fall 2019 semester, but it failed as well.
“What troubles me so greatly on this … was that the punishment is not commensurate with the crime,” Trachok said.
Trachok made two other motions to table the matter until later meetings, but both failed.
Regent Jason Geddes, who voted against every motion, except the one to affirm CSN’s decision, said he believes NSHE’s disciplinary procedures are very well defined and followed, and that the college followed them to the conclusion.
“I don’t want to go against the action they took,” Geddes said.
Martines said it’s NSHE’s position that CSN’s decision to terminate Peplowski, stands.
“We’re very disappointed they couldn’t come to a decision,” Gewerter said. “We’re going to give them hell.”
Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.