University of Denver Ordered to return $250,000: Judge Says School Failed to Establish Law Clinic for Poor

• Denver NAACP also Neglected to Spend Community Funds
  

An exasperated federal judge ordered the University of Denver on Friday to return more than $250,000 it was supposed to spend establishing a law clinic to serve low-income people whose civil rights might have been violated. The law clinic never got off the ground, and DU failed to file annual progress reports it had pledged to provide, Colorado U.S. District Judge John Kane stated in a written order. DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt said he could not comment Friday on the judge's order. "Our university counsel is going to have to review the document, and he's not on campus right now, so he'll be reviewing the document over the weekend and talking to people involved in the matter," Berscheidt said. Kane also said the NAACP failed to spend its $50,000 in related funding on community education programs. The organization already has returned about $48,000 of the money to the court following a special master's report that its accounting was "poor." Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) March 19, 2005 Saturday Final Edition