Firing of Jefferson foe at SUNO cited to jury
by Bruce Alpert and Jonathan Tilove - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- Ending his five days of testimony Tuesday, a Kentucky telecommunications executive said he feared ending an arrangement in which he provided payments and stock to a company controlled by former Rep. William Jefferson's wife because he had read what happened to a college administrator who tried to fire Andrea Jefferson from an academic post.

Vernon Jackson, CEO of iGate Inc., who is hoping to have his seven-year, three-month prison sentence for paying bribes to Jefferson reduced by his testimony, said he had read a story on the Internet about how Andrea Jefferson was in danger of losing her job but that the congressman had arranged the firing of the college official instead.

In January 2002, the governing board of the Southern University at New Orleans voted to remove Chancellor Joseph Bouie, who earlier had sought to remove Andrea Jefferson from her post as SUNO's vice chancellor for academic affairs. Bouie said he was fired "because I refused to participate in political nepotism."