University owes Steve Moore and the pursuit of truth an apology
Image by Luke Ruegger
We’ve been doing some thinking. Pepperdine’s affirmation statement proclaims “that truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline.”
Whether in political science, languages or scientific research, we are instructed, as students of this university, to pursue truth relentlessly. Not half-heartedly, not so-much-as-we-desire, not so-long-as-it’s-comfortable, but relentlessly.
In September 2010, Steve Moore, then deputy director of Public Safety, was summarily terminated after refusing to abandon his public crusade to free American student Amanda Knox from Italian prison after she was sentenced to 26 years in December 2009 for the murder of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher. Moore, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, had appeared on NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” detailing the reasons he believed that Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was sentenced to 25 years, had been wrongly convicted.
Moore claimed that the University first asked him to stop the investigation, citing the safety of those in the Florence program. Moore replied that he could not do so in good conscience, considering that the evidence he examined completely exonerated Knox. Days later, he claimed, the University asked him to resign with a severance package and a promise to keep Pepperdine’s name out of media attention related to the controversy.
After his termination, University administrators neither explained nor defended their decision to fire Moore, but Moore explained in an interview last September that Chief Administrative Officer Phil Phillips and Executive Vice President Gary Hanson told him initially in April 2010 to go for it, but keep Pepperdine out of it.
There had been no mention of Pepperdine in either television appearance, yet, less than three weeks after the Graphic interviewed Moore, he was gone.
While, at the time, most in the Pepperdine community probably paid little attention to the termination, it was big news in our newsroom. But we’re nearly as addicted to consuming news as we are to consuming Starbucks coffee. We understand it’s not the majority of Pepperdine students who can pick Amanda Knox from a lineup, despite the media storm surrounding her trial, conviction and release, and despite the fact Steve Moore was right. So, you might be wondering, “Why should I care?”
Well, it’s the transparency issue at its core. It’s the mission statement.
We understand that nondisclosure must exist for any institution to run properly. If we were advocating complete disclosure, for better or possibly much worse, Julian Assange would be president of Pepperdine. No, we’re glad President Andrew K. Benton is at the helm.
Strategic nondisclosure is one thing. But sometimes, what you’re not saying can only hurt you. It makes no difference to those students who can’t tell Amanda Knox from Julian Assange, and those who have followed the case must not care this much. But there are people out there familiar with the case and, more importantly, Pepperdine’s involvement with it in its treatment of Moore.
We don’t know what the terms of settlement were, but would a public apology to Moore hurt? In this case, we think silence does more harm than good.
Unless, of course, we’re considering the “having nothing to fear from investigation” clause. Yes, it is perfectly reasonable to assume we do have something to fear from this investigation — the safety and well-being of our International Programs students and faculty in Florence. The prosecutor in the Knox case, Giuliano Mignini, is nicknamed the “Monster of Florence,” after all. Let’s not upset him. If there is an ounce of danger, we completely understand dissociating ourselves from someone championing the innocence of “Foxy Knoxy.” And we see that the University was aware of this issue when it first contacted Moore about dropping the investigation. Perhaps we could’ve made a statement allowing Moore to do his thing on his own time, but also saying that his opinion does not reflect that of Pepperdine and the institution is not responsible for what he does on that free time.
As a seasoned veteran of the FBI and as a man unwilling to compromise his integrity for the sake of his job, Moore deserves an apology. At the time of his termination, the University, as an institution that respects the rule of law, may have been justified in their concern. But today, six weeks after Amanda Knox was declared not guilty, the University owes Moore a public apology.
Moore should be lauded for his unwillingness to compromise his integrity and his search for truth. He is a living example of why “truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline.”
I believe Pepperdine had every right to fire Steve Moore, after he made a fool of himself getting as he was a an outspoken critic of this case with little knowlege of what he was talking about.His focus should have remained protecting the students of the college. Whoever wrote this article sounds more like an Amanda Knox apologist.
Thank you for writing this. I agree, Steve Moore should get a public apology. I do laud his integrity and willingness to search for the truth at all costs.
“Little knowledge of what he was talking about.” Whoever wrote such garbage has little knowledge of what he was talking about. Steve Moore was a former FBI agent, who had done in-depth research into the case. Whether or not he should’ve been distracted from his job is one thing to argue, but claiming that he was in no position to make a judgement, or that he was making a fool of himself is just ignorant. And by the way, Amanda Knox doesn’t need apologists, she was acquitted. Reality is an Amanda Knox apologist.
Absolutely they owe him an apology! Either that or change their mission statement! How can you say you’re about truth and then fire someone for pursuing truth? Let’s not let our personal grudges (like some other commenters, here) blind us to the reality of this situation.
Thank you for writing this article. I could not agree more that Steve Moore deserves an apology. I highly doubt your plea to an institution that was willing to take such a strong stance on the matter will produce one though.
“He does not believe who does not live according to his belief.” ~Thomas Fuller
“‘Tis curious that we only believe as deeply as we live.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” ~George Bernard Shaw
“Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy.” -Christine Keeler
this is for Steve:
“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.” ~Abraham Lincoln
Just so you know, writer. Publico Ministero of Perugia, Guiliano Mignini was not referred to as “The Monster of Florence”, he was a prosecutor in the later part on the case of the serial killer named “Il Mostro di Firenze”. A case that spanned over the years from the later 1960′s to the mid 1980′s when Mignini came on.
However, Mark Waterbury, wrote a book he titled, “The Monster of Perugia” about Mignini to outline this man’s insanity and the relevance of his warped and corrupt mental state to the case of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Solelcito. There is no “foxy knoxy”, that was a 10 yr old soccer player who was wrongfully accused of killing her friend and imprisoned for 4 years unjustly.
As for Spuds Mckenzie, Perhaps you are either Peter Quennel, Peggy Ganong or a friend of theirs who maliciously contacted Pepperdine to complain about Steve Moore. Some people have hate in their hearts and choose young people to attack because they think younger people will not know how to defend themselves the way a peer might. I don’t think they were expecting so many adults would step up and fight for their innocence. Adults like Steve Moore who saw an obvious wrong by simply scratching the surface a little. Seeing Steve Moore is a experienced professional veteran of the FBI, it was not difficult for him to see there was a horrible injustice happening.
Steve Moore is a hero. Pepperdine’s apology would be icing on the cake for him, but, he doesn’t need it, by any means. The proof is in the pudding; Amanda & Raffaele’s attorney’s, the independent experts ordered by the judge and along with Steve’s help, have proved to the world that the crime was in the Prosecutor and his staff’s incompetent and unexplained objectionable investigation.
Pepperdine missed a golden opportunity to show it’s students, staff and parents that the university would support the efforts to free a student abroad who had been unjustly incarcerated.
Steve Moore was doing what parents of Pepperdine students would have expected had it been one of their students in an Italian prison. With his years of FBI experience he was absolutely the perfect person to help a student and their family in need; no doubt this was attractive to Pepperdine when they hired him, thinking of their own student’s safety. Instead of lauding his efforts, showing pride in his initiative and supporting a student in need, any student, the university fired him. Now they have egg on their face and Steve Moore, with his real world experience, will no doubt be courted by other institutions wanting to keep their students safe in this uncertain world.
One thing is for certain, Amanda Knox’s family benefited from having Steve in their corner.
I am a parent of a Pepperdine student and was saddened about how badly Pepperdine dealt with Steve Moore. The high respect I had for this institution, has been dimmed. We spend our hard earned money to send our students to learn the values that Pepperdine says they teach. However, when the going gets rough, Pepperdine caved. When they made a decision to fire Steve Moore, it was a terrible example for the students at Pepperdine. Pepperdine is proving that they are no different in their values than any other University. How sad… A critical look should be made into the person who made this decision to fire Mr. Moore. I strongly suggest that person be fired as they are in direct opposition to the values that Pepperdine holds or say they hold.
AS a former student of Pepperdine, I am truly ashamed that it has and is still failing to live up to its values. I will no longer donate money to the school until I see an apology.
Spuds Mckensize….(1)make sure you use correct grammar, (2)make sure your facts are correct, (3)and what are you even trying to say?
Pay no attention to Spuds Mckenzie. He’s just trolling around blasting Knox and isn’t connected with the Pepperdine community:
http://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&ix=c1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22spuds+mckenzie%22#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=%22spuds+mckenzie%22+%22amanda+knox%22&pbx=1&oq=%22spuds+mckenzie%22+%22amanda+knox%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=15420l18443l0l18906l9l8l0l0l0l4l222l1405l0.5.3l8l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=7c499719bcb4212e&biw=1375&bih=728
I wonder…
Phil Phillips, Gary Hanson or whomever made the ultimate decision to terminate Steve Moore’s employment, what would they have done had it been them who was 100% convinced of Amanda’s innocence? What if they had more than just media hype and hearsay to base their opinion upon? What if they had facts, proof, evidence of Amanda’s guiltlessness? What would they have done had Pepperdine asked them to keep their thoughts and ideas to themself? What would they have done when asked to stop speaking for a human being who couldn’t speak for herself? What would they have done if asked to sit idly by, watching what they dare believe is an innocent girl, as she sits locked behind bars for a crime which they are convinced to their soul she couldn’t have committed? I wonder, what would they have done?
Are these the characteristics of a leader or of a coward?
Maybe we already know the answers…
I wrote the original article a few weeks back when the verdict came out. In my research, I found that there exists a community of angry bloggers who apparently really hate Amanda Knox and troll the internet looking for anything having to do with the case so as to make negative comments on it, often using fabricated stories from the British tabloids as “evidence” about Amanda Knox’s character. Apparently, when Steve Moore came onto the case, they started to attack him as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found their way here too.