John Jay College Professors Accused of Free-Flowing Drugs, ‘Pimping out’ Female Students
“State authorities are investigating allegations that several longtime professors at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan committed a wide range of crimes and other misconduct, according to documents and people briefed on the inquiry,” the New York Times reported.
The New York State Inspector General and the Manhattan District Attorney are conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of “use and sale of drugs on campus, the attempt to coerce women into prostitution, and rape.”
However, because the investigation is still in the early stages it has not been independently corroborated by the authorities, according to “several people” the NYT’s said, but did add spokesman John Milgrim for inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, “confirmed that the agency, along with prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., is investigating the allegations.”
The college has known about the allegations since May and choose not to contact the appropriate authorities, but instead chose to first conduct “an internal review before contacting the police or prosecutors.”
Security officers for the college, apparently in mid-August, found significant quantities of drugs and drug paraphernalia during the internal inquiry, but they did not contact the police about the seizures until this month, two of the people said.
And when they did, they turned the drugs over to the police without disclosing their inquiry or the circumstances under which they were recovered, one of the people said.
New York Times; September 22, 2018
The women Claudia Cojocaru, 39, and Naomi Haber, 24, made their allegations filed in two complaints back in May and spoke out for the first time this weekend, telling their story first to the The New York Post who published the story on Saturday, which was a follow-up to a previous NY Post story on September 8.
According to the September 8 story, which says, “#MeToo has hit one of the nation’s top criminal-justice colleges,” the women were not known by name, nor had they spoken out publicly, but it does name the professors who had already been put on leave from the school.
Once the NY Post started asking questions, “the Midtown-based public college’s president, Karol Mason, sent an e-mail alerting students and staffers of the situation.
“Upon receiving complaints alleging inappropriate conduct by certain faculty members, we launched an investigation into the matter and have engaged an outside investigator to assist us. We are committed to a swift, thorough, and fair investigation, which is ongoing,” Mason wrote Friday.
The New York Post; September 8, 2018
In a phone interview with the NYTs on September 22, Saturday night, the NYT say the women “confirmed the allegations in the complaints and criticized the investigation conducted by John Jay.”
“They were incredibly rude and victim-degrading,” Ms. Cojocaru said. “They made us perform like circus animals, distorted the facts, and distorted what we talked about. They tried to brush the whole thing under the rug, so to speak. They retraumatized us by making us relive all sorts of traumatic experiences.”
The four professors are identified as Anthony Marcus, Richard ‘Ric’ S Curtis, Barry Spunt, and Leonardo Dominguez. All four have denied all allegations.
Marcus and Curtis have been chairs in the anthropology department and Curtis is considered “an expert on drug markets.” Spunt was “a former chair of the sociology department, and Dominguez is an epidemiologist professor “who worked with Professor Curtis and others on a project on opiate users.”
Naomi Haber, who graduated in January, alleges Anthony Marcus raped her in 2015 after a conference, according to The New York Post story.
Haber wrote in her complaint documents for the university’s internal investigation, “He put his hands around my throat, choked me with both hands and force himself inside me without warning.” Harber’s allegations detail ‘Ric’ Curtis first introduced her “to a world of deviance” and that there is “a secluded area” of the university called “the swamp,” and alleging Curtis attempted to “entice” her to have sex with colleague who they were trying to bring into the anthropology department; and that he tried to set her up to have sex with “a visitor from Harvard.”
Haber said, “she tried to forget about the rape, and never reported it to police,” according to the NY Post’s interview with her.
“Marcus refused to comment. “I’m not talking to the press,” he said.”
According to the Sept. 8 story, John Jay is not unused to being in the spot light or under scrutiny over the last year.
The college faced a controversy last September after Michael Isaacson, an adjunct economics professor there and self-proclaimed anti-fascist activist, tweeted that “it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.” He was put on leave and no longer teaches there.
And last fall, the college came under fire for hosting an exhibit of art by Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The Inspector General’s Office last year launched a probe into the college’s employment of two retired NYPD cops to chauffeur former President Jeremy Travis, who resigned in August 2017.
Both ex-cops were collecting state pensions, and most of their pay came from the CUNY Research Foundation to skirt state rules that prevented them from holding taxpayer-funded jobs without a waiver.
The New York Post; September 8, 2018
On A Side Note (Opinion)
For photographs of all involved and a more full detailed description of the complaints see The New York Post September 22 story here. It is a long sorted story with more than I can bring you here, but it’s not looking too good. If I understand it correctly, these four might just be the tip of the iceberg. I’ll try to remember to keep an eye on it and put it on our ever growing list of “this may be one to watch.”