Garzilli's attorney, William P. Homans '41 hadwritten Witzel requesting that he prevent Benson'sallegations from damaging her career.

Witzel responded by telling faculty membersthat he wished to avoid a lawsuit and thedisruption it would cause.

In an act that shocked some graduate students,Witzel undertook an examination of both Garzilliand Benson.

He wrote in a statement also filed inGarzilli's lawsuit that the "defamed" Garzilli wasa scholar of the highest ability, while in asevere critique of Benson's work, he alleged that"the defamer"--Professor Benson--had publishednothing but his dissertation and one articledealing with the same topic as the thesis and thathis conclusions were simply a "summary" of thescholastic discussion.

Witzel also alleged in his critique that Bensonhad made "some derogatory remarks about women andItalian women and their scholarship in general."

A month later, Witzel withdrew his letter,stating he "had acted improperly in speculatingabout Professor Benson's motives and inrepresenting to [Garzilli's attorney] that Iconducted an official investigation of his viewson behalf of the department."

Benson, contacted last week at Oxford, tookserious issue with Witzel's remarks and said thata "whole bunch of us had documented them andgotten the University to force him to retractthem."

Benson was immediately critical of Garzilli theone time her name was mentioned in a briefinterview, interrupting a question about "Dr.Garzilli" with the remark, "No, she's not aDoctor. Her degree is Italian and is theequivalent of an M.A."

Garzilli said Monday that in her field, theItalian degree is equivalent to an American Ph.D.

Witzel wrote in an additional statement filedwith Garzilli's lawsuit that the results ofGarzilli's "Ph.D. exams" at the "La Sapienza"University of Rome had been almost perfect.

Benson said at first that he could tellhorrifying stories about the Sanskrit Departmentand that "there is nothing [he'd] rather do," butafter talking with a University hall administratorsaid he could not comment.

Garzilli also names Dean of the Graduate SchoolChristoph Wolff as a defendant in her suit, saying"it is more probable than not that ProfessorWitzel was forced by a senior officer of Harvard,the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts andSciences, Dean Wolff, to write the'withdrawal'..."

Garzilli says in her complaint that "[i]n eachinstance of Dr. Garzilli's exclusion from ateaching appointment... the proximate cause of theexclusion was the opposition of Dr. Benson andProfessor Eck, without academic justification, andthe opposition and power, exercised by virtue oftheir positions in the University and in theDepartment, of Dean Wolff and Professor Bol, alsowithout academic justification."

Wolff refused to comment on the matter, as didassociate Dean Laura Fischer, who has helped himmanage the Department, referring all calls toUniversity Attorney Alan A. Ryan, Jr., who hasbeen assigned to the case.

Ryan declined to comment further than sayingGarzilli's case has little merit and he willaddress it in court.