Judge: Brand, IU trustees didn't break law in Knight meeting

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A judge ruled Indiana University trustees did not break the law when they met to hear plans to fire coach Bob Knight.

No more than four of the nine trustees -- not a quorum -- met at any one time with then-university president Myles Brand, Judge Cecile Blau said in a four-page ruling Monday. She said Brand's conversations with less than a quorum did not fall within the definition of a meeting in the state's open door law.

Even if the meetings did break the law, Blau wrote that she could not set aside Knight's September 2000 dismissal because Brand, not the trustees, had the authority to fire the coach.

Forty-six basketball fans in 2000 filed the lawsuit challenging the firing. Knight, now coach at Texas Tech, was dismissed for what Brand called "uncivil, defiant and unacceptable" conduct.

The school is facing another lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis Star, which is demanding documents related to Knight's firing, with a trial set for August.