Cobble Hill letter to klein - Special Commissioner of Investigation

Hon. J. I. Klein -46- June 26, 2007
Erasures
On re-direct by DOE attorney Rodriguez, Nobile testified that “you could say that
I was an expert in recognizing erased red pencil marks.” 149
Lennel George
Nobile testified that he and George “had a very good relationship…[Nobile] felt
that [George] had a sympathetic ear and that [Nobile] could trust [George], especially
since [George] took [Nobile] into [George’s] confidence vis-a-vis Ms. Capra on a number
of occasions.” 150 Nobile also testified: “I think [George] trusted me more than he trusted
[Capra].” 151
“I don’t want to hear that”
In his testimony during the DOE’s case at the George proceeding, Nobile offered
a version of the “I don’t want to hear that” exchange with the principal “in April or May
of 2003” which differed from both the account attributed to Swords in the Scarcella
report and from Swords’s testimony at the George proceeding.
Nobile testified on direct examination:
I lived in -- four blocks away from the school and I often drifted over to
Cobble Hill on Saturdays to do a little business here or there. And Mr. George
and I were very friendly at that point, and I would drop into his office, sometimes
alone, sometimes with Mr. Swords, and we’d just sit around and chat about
things. One of the things that we chatted about was Ms. Capra, who was a thorn
in both mine and Mr. Swords’ [sic] side, in this period.
And I remember specifically that I was alone having this conversation
with Mr. George, and I was talking in the aftermath of Ms. Capra’s U that she had
given me the previous March, and the kind of hostility that she was showing, and
basically talking about my disagreements with her as a supervisor. I was sharing
this information and Mr. George would share his thoughts about her with me. He
told me he was not a big fan of Ms. Capra’s, that he had problems with her, too,
and that he would make sure in the year-end report that these problems that
Swords and I and other faculty were bringing him would be in her final report.
And I remember just before I said she was a Regents cheat, I was saying, you
know, I disagree with a -- a lot of her ideas, and if you think she’s a good
supervisor, you should know she’s a Regents cheat. 152
149 The transcript at page 1792.
150 The transcript at pages 1784 and 1785.
151 The transcript at pages 1788 and 1789.
152 The transcript at pages 1219 and 1220.