U. prof rape case hearing rescheduled

A hearing of criminal charges against Penn Medical School neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh was postponed for the third time this past Tuesday.

The pre-trial hearing was originally scheduled for May 1, but postponed until May 15 to allow both parties to reach a plea agreement. On May 15, the hearing was further postponed at the request of the District Attorney's office.

Currently on leave, McIntosh is accused of raping a 23 year-old woman in his office in Hayden Hall last September while both he and the woman were under the influence of marijuana.

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 according to the Philadelphia Attorney General's Web site.

The woman McIntosh is accused of raping is on deferred admission status from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Penn, The Daily News reported. Judge Teresa Den rescheduled Tuesday's hearing for July 10. The schedule change was made at the request of the district attorney.

"The delay was agreed to by the defense," said Assistant District Attorney Gina Smith. "I wanted more time to investigate."

Smith added that "there are a lot of pieces to look at before a decision is made."

McIntosh took his leave of absence from the University on April 23. He surrendered to police on April 24, but has not pled guilty to any of the charges filed against him.

Both Smith and McIntosh's lawyer, Tom Bergstrom, do not expect the hearing to be postponed for a third time. Smith said that she is "still in conversations" with Bergstrom.

Despite the postponement of the hearing, Bergstrom said that he will continue trying to reach a plea agreement with the DA's office.

However, his attorneys stated earlier this month they would not entertain a plea agreement including a guilty plea to a rape charge.

"I'm hopeful that we can get the case resolved before" the hearing, he said.

Smith said that she cannot predict whether an agreement will be reached, but she added that there are a "gamut of possibilities about how this will be resolved."

McIntosh, a married father of two, has worked at Penn since 1992, specializing primarily in the study of chemical responses in the brain to traumatic head injury.

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