(July 24, 2007)—Dallas County District Judge Martin Hoffman says Baylor must answer about a dozen written questions about the university’s bid for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, the Dallas Morning News reported Monday.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed in 2005 by evicted condominium owner Gary Vodicka against Southern Methodist University.

Vodicka is a lawyer in University Park.

He alleges SMU used fraud and intimidation to oust him from the University Gardens condos near campus in order to acquire the site for the Bush library.

SMU denies the allegations, but Vodicka has argued that SMU’s proposal for the library will show that the university always intended for the library to be built on the condo site.

SMU, however, has refused to release its proposal, claiming that it’s private and that it doesn’t want to share details with potential competitors.

Since the first of the year, SMU has been the presumptive winner of the library sweepstakes, after the announcement it was entering into exclusive talks with the library site selection committee.

Baylor and the University of Dallas were the other two finalists.

The University of Dallas dropped its bid after SMU’s announcement.

Baylor, however, has not.

Vodicka wants to ask BU officials whether they think Baylor’s bid for the library is still alive and whether Baylor would be interested in seeing SMU’s proposal, the Morning News reported.

If the answer is “no,” then Vodicka argues that SMU should release its plans, because there’s no longer a competitor that could benefit from details of the proposal.

Baylor’s attorney, the Morning News reported, refused to concede the library to SMU and said the school is still waiting for a final formal announcement about the selection of a site.

Hoffman, the paper reports, called Baylor an “innocent party” in the dispute, but said Vodicka could ask about a dozen written questions.

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