Marketos loses case
The jury rejected the argument that Nipe falsely arrested Marketos, a Brown College senior, and determined that neither the university nor Nipe malicously prosecuted Marketos. The jury also did not find that Nipe subjected Marketos to unreasonable seizure.
In his charge to the jury Tuesday, Judge P.K. Rider asked the jury to answer 14 questions regarding the case. The first 13 concerned matters in which Marketos sought damages from Rice.
The final question was as to whether Marketos was liable for attorney's fees to the university and Nipe for filing a "meritless and groundless" civil rights suit. Five members of the six-person panel determined that Marketos' suit fell into that category and awarded Rice $40,000 in attorney's fees as compensation.
The university's official response to the verdict was, "We regret that the circumstances surrounding this incident resulted in litigation. Rice, however, is satisfied that justice was served by the jury's unanimous decision in favor of Rice and Officer Kenneth Nipe on all claims. The jury awarded the university and Officer Nipe forty thousand dollars for legal fees due to the `meritless and groundless' claim Marketos made regarding violation of civil rights."
Marketos was shocked by the outcome of the lawsuit.
"I was naive in thinking I could take on Rice's wealth and power all by myself -- it was basically one lawyer against six," he said. "Congratulations to Rice. They did a wonderful job with their defense team.
"We were shocked that we could spend 3 years trying to solve this case and then be fined $40,000 to cover their expenses."
Marketos' father, Nick Marketos, said, "There's one little moral victory here -- Nipe said he arrested Peter [Marketos] because he was sober."
He said this totally disproved prevalent rumors that Marketos had been drunk on the night of his arrest, as many people had previously said.
In addition to having to pay $40,000 for Rice's legal expenses, the Marketos' have spent about $10,000 in attorney's fees, as well as money spent in travel and other miscellaneous expenses. Peter Marketos, who had originally planned to graduate in December, will also have to spend an additional semester at Rice because of the trial.
Dean of Students Sarah Burnett said she thought students should use Rice's internal grievance procedures rather than resorting to litigation.
"We all need to learn to treat each other with respect and learn to resolve our conflicts without attorneys and courts," Burnett said. "Rice has internal grievance procedures and other dispute resolution procedures which can be used to settle conflicts among its members. If students ever feel they need help in resolving internal conflicts, I hope they will come to those of us who work in student affairs for advice on how to resolve these matters within the system."
According to Marketos, though, the reason why he and Rice did not come to an agreement is because Rice was unwilling to give Marketos a copy of the proceedings of the internal investigation that it conducted after the incident.
"We wanted the investigation report because we wanted it done thoroughly to clear his name," Nick Marketos said.
Marketos' attorney Greg Gladden was upset by the verdict against his client.
He speculated they lost the suit because civil rights cases are difficult to win "in this day and age ... unless there is serious bodily injury."
"Lawyers don't do civil rights cases to make money, they do them to make the world a better place," Gladden said.
-- Asst. News Editor Felisa Yang contributed to this article.
This item appeared in the News section of the November 10, 1995 issue.
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