"BYU has a right to insist that even faculty members with continuing faculty status abide by the Honor Code," said attorney Robert Clark, representing BYU. "(This case) really involves a betrayal of trust and rationalizations and attempts to cover up his activities. This case is about serious misconduct that put the university and its students at risk."

Clark said BYU conducted an independent investigation through the human resources department because officials were concerned — not because they were responding to angry claims from Thwaits' academic peers.

During the coming weeks of the trial, Clark said the jury would hear how Thwaits gave a student an Ativan pill (a controlled substance) and how Thwaits repeatedly told university investigators he hadn't given anyone medicine. When the Utah County Attorney's Office brought criminal charges, Thwaits later pleaded no-contest to a felony charge of dispensing medicine without a license in 4th District Court.

The no-contest plea, while not an admission of guilt, holds the same legal weight as a guilty plea and was one of the factors in BYU's decision to consider termination, after a nearly two-year investigation.

"As you have seen, Richard Thwaits is a man with great potential and will undoubtedly accomplish many things in the future — but it won't be at BYU," Clark said.

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