Former Penn Neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh will be sentenced today for the September 2002 sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman, to which he pleaded no contest in December.
McIntosh was found guilty of sexual assault and possession of narcotics.
The victim, who was then on deferred admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine, had been drinking with McIntosh at a bar and was under the influence of marijuana that he had given her.
After leaving the bar, the two returned to McIntosh's Hayden Hall office, where they allegedly engaged in non-consensual sexual intercourse.
By law, McIntosh faces a maximum of six to 12 years in prison for the two charges, but the guidelines call for between three and six years, according to Gina Smith, the Philadelphia assistant district attorney.
Important documents will be released at the sentencing pertaining to the "conduct of Tracy McIntosh and the University," Smith said.
McIntosh -- the father of two children -- had also been accused of drugging the victim with Nembutal, a hypnotic sedative.
Significant amounts of the drug had been missing from the professor's lab at the time. However, McIntosh has always denied the allegation.
Moreover, an audit conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration found that the drug was not used for anything other than its intended research purpose.
McIntosh resigned his faculty position in December 2004 after School of Medicine Dean Arthur Rubenstein requested that he do so. The request came immediately after McIntosh's no-contest plea.
The University began an internal investigation into the allegations in November 2002. However, the results did not confirm the woman's account of the events.
McIntosh went on leave from the University on April 23, 2003. He surrendered himself to police the next day and was later released on a $2,000 bail.
During the summer of 2003, McIntosh and his lawyer had offered to plea-bargain under the conditions that the sexual assault charge be dropped. The district attorney declined, and no further attempts were made toward a plea bargain.
McIntosh had been a Penn faculty member since 1992. He was the vice chairman of the Neurosurgery Department and was considered one of the nation's leading experts on brain injuries.
At the time of the incident, McIntosh -- the recipient of several awards for his research and teaching excellence -- was working on a study that sought to use stem cells to repair brain injuries.
McIntosh's lawyer, Tom Bergstrom, did not return calls for comment.
