Doc and dozy are 100% correct. There is no sure fire way out of it once the committee is formed. Locally a young man threatned suicide. I had no reason to believe he was faking it since he is still a witness even now. The chairman and I called the branch. We were directed to legal. They asked a few questions and ended with "we have no objection to the committee proceeding". Direct quote. I have it written down.
As for the recording aspect, i never had anyone specifically ask to record but we would have declined. If they insisted we simply would not have meet with them and taken their refusal to meet without recording it as evida ce that they wernt of right heart condition and DF'd them.
I would give anything a shot, theres no harm, but dont hold any great hope on it. The best answer is to not admit anything that would get you in front of one if that is important to you.