DENVER -- Former University of Colorado professor is suing to get his job back, saying he was fired him over an essay he wrote about the Sept. 11 attacks. The school argues that he was fired because of plagiarism, fabrication and other research misconduct. 7NEWS Reporter Lance Hernandez is blogging live from the trial.

9:15 a.m.

Judge Larry Naves gives instruction to jurors. He tells them they can take notes if they desire. Tells them to remember this is a long case. If they want to ask question of the witness, he told them to write it down but don't sign it.

9:25 a.m.

The Churchill trial begins with opening arguments.

Churchill's attorney, David Lane, told jurors that we want teachers and professors in this country to be free to cover whatever their conclusions lead them to without fear that Big Brother is going to come down on them and fire them for telling the truth as they see it.

Lane took jurors back in history to 1633. He said Galileo published works based on his then "outlandish" belief that the sun was the center of the universe, not the earth. He said the Pope told him the bible said otherwise. Galileo was tried and put in prison.

Fast forward, Lane told jurors that Ward Churchill wrote an essay about why 9/11 happened. He said Churchill wrote that "you can push people and you can push people and sometimes they push back." He said President Bush said, "They hate us because of our freedom." Churchill said, "It's more than that Mr. President."

Churchill wrote that America's economic policies sometimes hurt other nations, bringing death and destruction to millions of people.

He wrote that when we blockaded Iraq as a military police force, children in Iraq do have access to medicine and clean water and 500,000 Iraqi children died because of it.

Lane said Madeline Albright called it "collateral damage." Ward Churchill called it mass murder.

In his essay, Churchill compared the victims of 9/11 to Adolph Eichmann, one of Hitler's henchmen. He said Eichmann worked for Hitler and came up with the final solution, but that Eichmann wasn't a raving anti-Semite.

Lane said Ward Churchill wrote that the victims of 9/11 were just going to work doing what they were told, which is what many Nazis did.

He said there is a group of ultra rightwing politicians and professors who were dedicated to ridding universities of people like Ward Churchill. He said they fired up the right wing media. He said Bill O'Reilly was all over Ward Churchill; Sean Hannity, every time, he opened his mouth, he was spewing venom about Ward Church, Lane said.

Bill Owens, the governor of Colorado said we must fire Ward Churchill, Lane said.

It was an absolute mob mentality.

Lane said officials vowed to look at all of Churchill's writings and all his work to find a way to get rid of him. He showed jurors a three to four foot stack of books written by Ward Churchill -- 4,000 pages in all.

He said President George Bush commented on Ward Churchill, condemning him.

Lane said CU officials sacrificed this man (pointing to WC) because they were afraid of the howling mob.

He unveiled a chart showing Ward Churchill 's family tree. He said Churchill received awards and was named associate professor with tenure in 1991, at CU.

He told jurors that in 2005, BANG! things changed. Rush Limbaugh was all over him. Fire Churchill, the man should be in jail, they said. He needs to be jailed because he is a traitor to the United States of America, they said.

Bill O'Reilly -- the same thing. Lynn Cheney -- the same thing. Cheney's foundation, Lane said, started the whole thing.

Lane said Churchill was a voice for Native Americans. He gave a voice to people who had no voice.

He wrote that the U.S. Army started the small pox epidemic among the Indians by giving them infected blankets.

They said, "That is false, that is a lie ... They didn't do that Ward Churchill."

Lane said United States' history is written by the winners. The winners write history. The losers have to live with it. And, the white man was the winner of history, according to Gov. Owens and according to the University of Colorado, Lane said.

The people who sat in judgment of him had no background in Indian history.

They told him, "You're fired!" In 2005, bang!

But school officials couldn't hang him out to dry without going through all the legal hoops, Lane said.

Right now, he's labeled a plagiarist, a guy who makes things up. The only way CU could do this without getting into a jam is by creating committee after committee after committee. "The scrub committee." They make all these pious noises that, "We are so fair. We gave him all these opportunities."

The head of the committee was a law professor. She compared Churchill to O.J. Simpson -- a killer, Michael Jackson -- a child molester and Bill Clinton -- a liar and cheater.

They say what a monster he is.

9:56 a.m.

The rules only apply to Ward Churchill. They do not apply to anybody else. They do not apply to the CU chancellor.

Confidentiality is one of the rules. School administrators didn't try to protect one of their professors who was under attack. They opened the doors and threw him to the wolves, Lane said.

Ward Churchill filed a complaint alleging they violated their own rules. He never got an apology.

He has spent numerous days in the American ghetto on the reservation. He has written thousands of pages.

This is the first time in four years that Ward Churchill has had an opportunity to come before a neutral body of citizens with no axes to grind.

It's a first amendment violation to fire him from his job. They destroyed him. He is now labeled. He's branded, and the only people who can fix it are you, Lane tells the jurors.

10:22 a.m.

CU's attorney, Patrick O'Rourke told jurors, "You will determine that Ward Churchill lost his job for one reason and one reason only. He was involved in the worst kind of academic fraud."

The Board of Regents ran for office because they want the university to be the best place it can be. The president of CU is the school's CEO on a daily basis. In 2005 Phil DiStephano was named Chancellor. He made strong decisions, but they were very difficult decisions.

He said the faculty senate is one of the strongest bodies at the University of Colorado.

These were not people who were going to get railroaded. These were not people who were going to find Ward Churchill guilty of something he didn't do.

There were right-wing commentators saying, "Fire this guy." There were parents saying, "Fire this guy."

There were thousands of people out there who said don't punish Ward Church for what he said.

There were people who said we will no longer support the university.

So the university said, "We should meet."

You have to have good information to make responsible decisions. And that's what the regents did.

The chancellor said, "I'm going to bring this decision back to the campus." He formed a committee.

The chancellor said that to fire Ward Churchill now would be irresponsible.

The chancellor decided that Ward Churchill 's essay, no matter how harmful, was protected speech.

He formed a committee. Nobody handpicked anybody to sit on this committee.

O'Rourke said you will hear from Professor Ratliffe who will say, "I wanted to be on this committee because I wanted to make sure that Ward Churchill was not being made an example of for something he didn't do. I wanted to make sure he got a fair hearing."

The committee looked at Ward Churchill's work and determined that there was falsification... fabricating... making up... plagiarism

The committee recommended to the chancellor, "You should dismiss Ward Churchill

None of these committee members were hand picked by the administration. They were picked by other faculty.

They told Ward Churchill, "We can't find that anyone has inhibited your first amendment rights."

They all said professor Ward Churchill had a right to say what he said.

They said Ward Churchill has engaged in behavior that falls below the minimum standards of acceptance.

He took the most basic obligation of a faculty member and disregarded it, fabricating information, plagiarizing someone else's work.

"Three of the faculty members said, "We find evidence to warrant suspending him for several years." Others found the evidence warranted dismissal.

He said Ward Churchill lost his job because he did something that an 8th grader knows is wrong.

11:27 a.m.

Professor Evelyn Wu-DeHart is called to the stand.

She is a professor of history and ethnic studies at Brown University, formerly at CU.

Says ethnic studies emerged from the civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s. Says the contributions of blacks, Hispanics and Asians had been ignored for years. The notion of citizenship was reserved for white people.

"When CU tried to recruit me … Ward Churchill was already here."

Her opinion: Ward Churchill is one of the leading Native American scholars. One whose scholarship crosses a wide range. His impact is perhaps the single largest of all in ethnic studies.

"I think the worst thing that can happen to a scholar is when no one cares about you. When you provoke others. That is the highest testament to scholars."

She had written that Ward Churchill was not your typical academic.

He was in academic services. He had already be publishing and writing as a scholar. He did not have the usual criteria. Absence of Phd., which says you have an analytical mind. He was able to convince CU to hire him because of his published works.

She said he was an activist... an applied scholar. He takes information and applies it to areas of social import.

He was one of the most successful teachers we ever had at CU. We felt he should have been named a full professor long before he was. Said Ward Churchill is a courageous person.

11:57 a.m. Trial breaks for lunch until 1:30 p.m.

1:37 p.m.

power outage

1:47 p.m.

Phil DiStefano takes the stand. He is former Acting Chancellor now Provost at CU. He was asked about the Regent's rules that state: members of the faculty must have complete freedom to study... to do research. He said he agreed with them.

He said those provisions mean that school officials would be required to protect academic freedom. He said if Galileo was teaching something that was heretical... they'd have to protect him.

David Lane asked DiStefano about political pressure, asking him if former Governor Owens went around threatening CU's funding if they didn't look into the professor's actions. Lane asked if DiStefano agreed that there was a howling mob at the gates demanding Ward Churchill be fired. He said he did.

Was WC applauding the 9/11 attacks? DiStefano said no.

Churchill was calling people in the WTC Nazis. He called them little Eichmann's right? DiStefano: Yes.

When I say Ward Churchill all the time you know what I mean right? Yes. Bill O'Reilly was all over this story right? yes.

Lane said public figure after public figure after public figure was calling for Churchill to be fired. Sean Hannity, the Rocky Mountain News, Churchill did this, Churchill did that, Churchill... Churchill... Churchill.

The Governor said fire him or else didn't he? Yes.

Three regents asked for Churchill's head? I know of two.

Regent Tom Lucero said he wanted Churchill fired because of his 9/11 comments.

Lucero couldn't fire him for that, but in July of 07 he voted to terminate him after the investigation into WC's academic work.

2:41 p.m.

Lane asked DiStefano if he was looking for something to show cause for dismissal? Provost responded: I was looking to see if WC overstepped his bounds. You were looking for anything to show cause for dismissal? Those were your words? DiStefano: Yes. The Regents were like yeah! They were behind you? Yes.

Was it your mission to determine if WC's essay was protected speech? Yes.

The professor in charge of the College where Churchill taught was asked to help look in to the matter. So was the Dean of the law school. The law school dean expressed revulsion at Churchill's remarks on Jan. 28th... thinks he shouldn't be on the faculty. That's the tone you get from his e-mail right? Yes.

Then Mimi Wesson... of the same law school then becomes the chief of the committee investigating Churchill doesn't she? Yes.

Is it merely a coincidence that the chair of the body that found Churchill guilty.. works with the Dean who expressed that WC needs to be looked into. Yes it's a coincidence. DiStefano said: You're making an assumption that because they're in the law school that they think alike?

We have the Dean saying we need to look into WC's competency and integrity. Then we have Mimi Wesson a respected professor under the Dean who is comparing WC to a double murdering... child molesting liar... who ends up sitting on the investigative committee that's pure coincidence? Is that what you're saying? I believe it is, DiStefano responded.

DiS was asked about e-mail from prof. Getches (sp?) He said we need to take action before the media nuts go crazy. It will make it look like it was our decision not theirs.

For the good of his friends and colleagues in the Ethnic studies dept. WC voluntarily agreed to step down.

Getches wanted WC suspended

Getches was the dean of the law school and believes that competency is in question. Law school Dean, David Getches is repulsed by WC's comments and didn't believe he should be on the faculty.

A note from Mimi Wesson who works in the same bldg as the dean of the law school compares WC to a double murdering... child molesting liar.

4:48 p.m.

CU attorney Patrick O'Rourke asked DiStefano if he witch-hunted Ward Churchill, DiStefano responded no I did not.

There's a balance we have to look at. Is the speech disruptive to the Universtity. There were 1,000's of letters coming in to the U on both sides. Saying his speech had crossed the boundries and promoted terrorism, hate speech. Facuty said the cornerstone of academic freedom is free speech. It turns out he did not cross the line. However we found these issues of academic misconduct. He admitted having to deal with the mob mentality, that's why he pulled the decision backk from the regents to the campus. to give time to look at the speech.

Case will continue at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.

Background

A jury was seated Monday to hear Ward Churchill 's lawsuit against CU, which fired him in 2007. Churchill said the school fired him over an essay he wrote about the Sept. 11 attacks. But the university insisted he was fired after three committees of faculty members from Colorado and other universities accused Churchill of plagiarism, fabrication and other research misconduct.

Churchill's essay said the 2001 terrorist attacks were triggered by an unjust U-S foreign policy and likened those killed in the World Trade Center to "little Eichmans," a reference to Nazi Adolf Eichman.

Churchill was a tenured ethnic studies professor who claims to be part American Indian.