Penn Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh pleaded no contest to, and was found guilty of, sexual assault and drug charges related to an attack on an acquaintance two years ago.
McIntosh, who has been on administrative leave from Penn since the charges were levied in April 2003, potentially faces a maximum sentence of 5 1/2 to 11 years in jail.
The motion and decision came down in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Wednesday, and he will be sentenced at a hearing on March 2.
On the eve of the trial, McIntosh reversed his earlier stance that he would refuse to enter a plea unless charges of sexual misconduct were dropped.
Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Gina Smith said that it is not uncommon for defendants to plead no contest on the night before a trial, when they are aware of all of the evidence.
School of Medicine Dean Arthur Rubenstein has requested McIntosh's immediate resignation and expects to receive it shortly.
The prosecution was ready to launch a lengthy case against him.
"With respect to the strength of the evidence," Smith said, "the prosecution was prepared with extensive evidence and 47 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits."
Several of these witnesses are affiliated with Penn, Smith said.
McIntosh's lawyer did not immediately respond to calls.
On the night of the rape, according to the victim's prior testimony, McIntosh and the victim, then 23, had been drinking at a bar. They returned to the professor's Hayden Hall office, where they engaged in non-consensual sexual intercourse while while she was under the influence of marijuana that he had provided.
The professor, who at the time was the chairman of the Neurosurgery Department, was also accused of using the sedative sodium pentobarbital to drug the victim. A portion of the drug was found missing and undocumented in the professor's lab, though the defense contested it had already been missing at the time of the incident.
Smith, directly relaying a message from the victim, said that "both she and her family are relieved by this plea and are glad to set the record straight so that there is no ambiguity."
McIntosh's grant and research work has been delegated to fellow professors since he has been on leave.
Before his arrest, McIntosh had been considered one of the University's rising star professors. He had received several awards for his research and medical discoveries, won an award for teaching excellence in 2001 and held an endowed professorial chair. His biography is still listed on the Medical School Web site.
