A pretrial conference was rescheduled yesterday morning in the case against Tracy McIntosh, the Penn Neurosurgery professor accused of raping a 23-year-old woman in his Hayden Hall office.
The rescheduling came at the request of the defense, as McIntosh's counsel was not available to attend the proceedings.
McIntosh has been the subject of scrutiny since late last year when the University began to investigate allegations that he raped the woman -- who is now 24 -- while they were under the influence of marijuana that he provided.
After turning himself into the police in April of 2002, McIntosh was charged with rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment at his arraignment in late July.
McIntosh, who has been a member of the faculty since 1992, remains on leave from the University until the matter is resolved. In addition, the supervision of his grant work has been reassigned.
Assistant District Attorney Gina Smith appeared before Judge Carolyn Temin yesterday morning to announce the continuance to the court. Temin rescheduled the conference for Dec. 3.
The crucial pretrial conference comes after the defense put forth a motion to quash, or suppress, charges that McIntosh drugged the woman. A quash indicates a lack of evidence for the charges to stand trial.
Temin granted a continuance to the Commonwealth on Sept. 10 so that Smith could present additional evidence before Temin makes her final ruling on the quash.
At the December conference, the district attorney's office will be given the opportunity "to put in evidence to augment the record and then argue again," Smith said.
"I'll just be calling some witnesses on the issue that [Temin] was about to grant the motion to quash on," Smith added. She would not comment on the nature of the witnesses she would be calling, or what evidence they would offer.
Neither of McIntosh's attorneys could be reached for comment.
