Rodin's ex-driver sues U. for alleged unlawful search

University President Judith Rodin's former driver and bodyguard, who was fired last year after police found a gun and marijuana in his car, filed a $3 million lawsuit in May accusing the University of unlawfully searching his car and causing him emotional and financial distress. Donald Gaines was fired in March 1996, three weeks after a University Police officer discovered the firearm and drugs --Eas well as ammunition and empty beer cans -- in the car, which was parked in the University-owned garage at 38th and Walnut streets. Gaines was never charged with a crime. He had a concealed-weapons permit to carry his registered .22-caliber revolver. "This case is going to boil down to the Fourth Amendment," said Marc Perry, the Gaineses' attorney. "My client's rights were clearly violated, and he's prepared to take this as far as he has to to get his name cleared." The Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights protects citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures." Gaines and his wife, Joyce, who are in their early 40s, seek $1 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. Judge Clarence Newcomer is presiding over the case. The complaint names the University, the University Police Department, Rodin, her chief of staff, Steve Schutt and the officer who searched the car as defendants in the suit. Attorneys William O'Brien and Nancy Gellman of the Philadelphia firm Conrad O'Brien Gellman & Rohn P.C. are representing all the defendants except Officer John Washington. Philadelphia lawyer Howard Bruce Klein is representing Washington. Washington was promoted to sergeant in May. O'Brien and Gellman didn't return telephone calls August 27 seeking comment, and Klein was on vacation that week and wasn't available for comment. On July 7, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss most of the charges in the complaint. That motion is still unresolved, and both sides have filed additional memoranda defending their positions. Gaines was a 23-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department until April 1995, when the Office of the President hired him to be Rodin's "personal security guard and driver for as long as she was" president, according to the complaint. After Gaines parked his car on Feb. 26, 1995, Washington searched the vehicle and its trunk "without probable cause" and discovered Gaines' unloaded weapon and allegedly "three hand-rolled cigarettes containing a 'leafy substance'," according to the complaint. The District Attorney's Office declined to press charges against Gaines, saying the search was illegal. Public Safety Managing Director Thomas Seamon wrote in a March 6, 1996, DP letter to the editor that the investigation was "standard and routine" and that the car door was open. Seamon said August 27 that he stands by that account. Gaines also accused the defendants of invading his privacy and conspiring to violate his civil rights. University Police officers didn't like Donald Gaines because they wanted Rodin to hire a guard from within the department, and that bias may have prompted Washington to search the car, Perry charged. In addition to driving Rodin, Donald Gaines performed other tasks including driving to pick up wine "in a northeastern state" and driving to Maryland or Washington to pick up the family dog, Perry added. In the complaint, Joyce Gaines said she "sustained loss of life's pleasures with her husband and also sustained loss of financial security [and] peace of mind?." The case is still in the early stages, Perry said. The deadline for the end of discovery, in which attorneys exchange information relevant to the case, has not yet been set, and no trial date has been assigned. The Gaineses have demanded a jury trial in the case.

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