DENVER -- The woman who led the investigation into whether Prof. Ward Churchill was guilty of academic misconduct had privately voiced criticism of him before the investigation began.

Mimi Wesson spent most of the day on the witness stand where she was grilled by Churchill's attorney David Lane.

After the Churchill controversy broke, Wesson wrote an e-mail to a friend in which she said supporters of Churchill could be compared to supporters of O.J. Simpson, former president Bill Clinton and singer Michael Jackson.

On the witness stand, Wesson said she was commenting that the men all had followers who refused to believe that that person could have done something wrong. She also referred to the controversial professor as "unpleasant, to say the least."

She never disclosed the e-mail when she decided to lead the investigation.

Churchill is expected to take the stand Tuesday morning.

Churchill was fired two years ago on allegations of plagiarism and other misconduct after his essay comparing some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi caused a furor.

Churchill was a tenured professor of ethnic studies. Attorney David Lane said in the trial's opening statements last week that Churchill was the target of a "howling mob" that had the school searching for a pretext to fire him.