Finding Holds Only Non-Immigrant Attorney-Wannabees Can Cheat

Alleged Bar Exam Cheater Got Due Process, Panel Says
The New York Law Journal by John Caher  -  January 3, 2012

A woman allegedly caught cheating on the New York state bar exam has failed to persuade an appellate panel that she was denied due process or that the nullification of her test results was not supported by substantial evidence. Dewitt v. Board of Law Examiners, 512523, stems from the July 2009 exam, when proctors said they saw Rose Dewitt copying or attempting to copy another candidate's responses to the multiple choice questions during both days of the exam.  The Board of Law Examiners then retained an expert on test security and cheating, James A. Wollack, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who had performed "copy analyses" for the board on 27 prior occasions. Mr. Wollack concluded that "statistical evidence" suggested that Ms. Dewitt had copied responses to the multiple choice questions. In addition to her lack-of-proof argument, Ms. Dewitt claimed she was denied due process because she was not provided with the other candidate's address or the underlying data on which Mr. Wollack concluded that she had copied answers. But that issue was not preserved for review because she failed to raise it at a hearing before the board.  Records show that Ms. Dewitt is a 45-year-old immigrant who had practiced law for 14 years in her native Russia and now lives on Staten Island. Ms. Dewitt took an intensive course in English at Manhattan College, transferred to Baruch College to study English as a second language and worked as a paralegal in two law offices before enrolling in the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2006, according to court records.