The property manual identifies the procedural requirements for USF to establish ownership of property. USF withheld the this manual during the court proceedings prior to trial. Not until after the trial, Petr learned that USF was in fact required to file such a manual with the Florida Department of State. However, no one at the USF library or the administrative offices knew of any such document. When Petr contacted the USF general counsel's office, he was told to submit a letter specifying a description of this document and to explain in detail the purpose for which Petr wanted this document. In September 1990, Petr contacted the Florida Department of State and obtained a copy of USF's Property Procedures Manual. The USF Property Procedures Manual shows Petr to be the rightful owner of the laboratory notebooks. According to the property manual, USF had no right to claim ownership of the notebooks, and the State had no basis for prosecuting Petr. The USF Property Procedures Manual shows that the State misrepresented ownership of the notebooks to the Jury.

The property manual was in effect at all times since 1984. The USF property manual sets forth uniform procedural requirements governing ALL departments at the University of South Florida with regard to marking and accounting for items of USF property:

"The purpose of this memorandum is to establish uniform policies and procedures to be followed by all departments in requisitioning, receiving, marking, accounting for, and disposing of items of property at the University of South Florida."

According to Section IV of the property manual, in order to establish ownership of property, USF must mark university property by one of three specific methods:

"Marking will be done by one of the following methods:

1)Placing a numbered decal on the property or equipment.

2)Writing the property number on the equipment with indelible pencil (carpets, mattresses [sic], etc.).

3)Writing the property number on the equipment with an etching needle."

Pursuant to USF's property manual, appropriate identification marking will determine ownership of an item of property.

"Personal books and equipment belonging to staff members and brought to the campus should be appropriately marked and identified by the owner in order to prevent any possible future misunderstanding as to ownership." Page 4

The USF Property Procedures Manual clearly shows that the notebooks are Petr's property, and that USF had no right to claim ownership of the notebooks. The notebooks are not marked in any manner which would identify them as belonging to USF or Florida Progress. In fact, the notebooks are labeled on the cover as Petr's property. Petr purchased the notebooks with his own money. The notebooks are in Petr's handwriting. The notebooks are clearly not USF property.

Petr provided the sponsored project data from his notebooks to USF. USF's position is that USF owns Petr's entire notebooks because parts of Petr's notebooks contain the original project data.

USF did not at any time handle or consider Petr's notebooks as USF property. During pretrial discovery, when USF was supposed to disclose any evidence favorable to Petr, it seems that USF decided, what the jury should and should not get to see, and USF decided that the jury should not see the USF Property Procedures Manual.

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Updated January 4, 1998
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