Prof charged with rape trying to reach plea with Phila.

Neurosurgery Professor Tracy McIntosh was granted two weeks to reach a plea agreement with the City of Philadelphia after his pre-trial hearing Thursday was continued until May 15, according to his attorney Tom Bergstrom. McIntosh has been charged with raping a 23-year-old woman in his office on September 6. The woman, who is on deferred admission status from Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, is the neice of one of McIntosh's friends, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. The attorneys are now working on a deal in which McIntosh would plead guilty to some charges and others would be dropped. Bergstrom declined to give details of the negotiations, saying that nothing had been completely resolved yet. "To the extent that we resolve the case, it's certainly not going to include a plea to a rape charge," Bergstrom said. "To the extent that we are successful and both sides are happy, it would be ultimately a plea to something less serious." "If we can't agree, I suppose we'll have to go to trial," he added. According to the Philadelphia Attorney General's website, McIntosh has been "charged with rape, indecent assault, false imprisonment, and related charges for sexually assaulting a woman in his office at the University of Pennsylvania." The victim claims that she was raped after smoking marijuana with McIntosh in his office on campus. McIntosh, a married father of two, has been a professor at the University since 1992, focusing primarily on chemical responses in the brain to traumatic head injury. He has been on a leave of absence since Wednesday.

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