The latest charge against at Ward Churchill is plagiarism.

University of Colorado officials investigating embattled professor Ward Churchill received documents this week purporting to show that he plagiarized another professor’s work. Officials at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia sent CU an internal 1997 report detailing allegations about an article Churchill wrote.

The article . . . is, in the opinion of our legal counsel, plagiarism,” Dalhousie spokesman Charles Crosby said in summarizing the report’s findings.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that CU and Churchill are closer to a buy-out deal. Churchill’s lawer, David Lane, now says a buy-out could be reached quickly. A settlement is preferable to a firing.

Lane has said that if CU moved to fire Churchill, he would likely answer with a lawsuit charging an infringement of Churchill’s First Amendment rights.