After a preliminary hearing on July 10, Neurosurgery Professor Tracy McIntosh now waits to face trial on rape charges that led to his his arrest in May.
McIntosh is accused of raping a 23 year-old woman in his Hayden Hall office last September while both were under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
Last Thursday's hearing included testimony from the woman McIntosh is accused of raping, as well as statements from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency official and a University laboratory worker.
Now 24, the woman -- who according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, plans to attend Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine -- testified that on the night of Sept. 6, she and McIntosh visited several campus bars before returning to McIntosh's office, where the rape allegedly took place.
According to the testimony presented by the District Attorney's office, McIntosh sexually assaulted the woman after slipping an animal anesthetic into one of her drinks. Information provided by a DEA audit of drugs missing from McIntosh's laboratory were used in an effort to corroborate this version of events.
Defense attorney Tom Bergstrom called the accusations concerning the missing drugs "bogus allegations" in a phone interview yesterday.
At the hearing, Bergstrom presented a University doctoral candidate who testified to using the missing animal anesthetics in a research experiment on 10 guinea pigs. She testified to that she did not know the log book procedure for recording drug use, explaining the discrepancy in records.
"The evidence is pretty uncontradicted that a Ph.D... used the drug and didn't log it in," Bergstrom said yesterday. "No drug left that lab and I think that's clear from the record."
Bergstrom added that his office planned to file a motion today or tomorrow to challenge whether enough significant evidence remained to carry out a trial.
"I think we've got a decent argument here," he said.
In May, attorneys involved in the case entered into plea negotiations that would have dropped some of the charges and resolved the case without bring it to trial.
Discussing the failure to settle on a plea agreement, Bergstrom noted that the possibility of circumventing a trial now seemed unlikely.
"I'm always open to discussion, but we've sort of exhausted the possibility," he said.
A married father of two, McIntosh -- who has been on paid leave since April 23 -- has been at the University since 1992 as a professor of neurosurgery, pharmacology and bioengineering. He served as the director of the Head Injury Center, vice chair of research in the Neurosurgery Department and is considered an expert on injuries to the central nervous system.
Rebecca Harmon, spokeswoman for the University Health System, previously reported to the Daily Pennsylvanian that the University first became aware of the allegations "about two and a half months after the alleged events" and responded with an internal investigation that "could not produce any information corroborating [the woman's] version of events."
McIntosh is scheduled to be arraigned July 31.
