The Gouverneur Times is up with an interesting story today about Dede Scozzafava being sued by St. Lawrence University over back payments on the Wisebuys loan. They report that the university is seeking $75,000 that is remaining on a loan of $200,000 that has been due since last February. It appears that Dede, her brother Thomas and Joseph LaChausse personally guaranteed a loan and now things are quickly going south. St. Lawrence University indicates that the trio had signed a personal guarantee that if Wise Buys/Hacketts defaulted, they would pay the note.
But why did St. Lawrence University wait until after the election to file their lawsuit? They have been owed money since February. I guess it could just be that the SLU lawyers are finally getting around to it. But alumni and Dede supporters deserve to know whether there was ever any quid pro quo involved here and whether SLU was holding back on the Dede lawsuit so they could use their leverage to get them some colorful earmarks and green grants? Did the university play politics with its endowment fund? It may be hard to determine, but the timing is awful suspect. Certainly Dede could have paid back her share of the $75,000 owed to SLU by now had she not put so much of her own money into her congressional campaign account. Someone has some explaining to do here.
Update 1: Macreena Doyle, SLU's Coordinator of News Services, responded to our request for a statement on the timing of the lawsuit through e-mail saying that, "No -- we do not comment on matters of litigation."
Update 2: But has SLU ever commented on matters of litigation? This isn't SLU's first lawsuit. SLU filed a lawsuit against owners of a failed Mexican restaurant to regain more than $35,000.
