Former professor Tracy McIntosh will be the focus of a second lawsuit. And this time, Penn is fair game, too.
McIntosh was sentenced earlier this month to between 11 1/2 and 23 months of house arrest for the sexual assault of the niece of a close friend.
The victim -- whose name is being withheld by The Daily Pennsylvanian because of the sexual nature of the crime -- has filed a civil suit against McIntosh, Penn, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania doctor Arthur Asbury and the Department of Neurosurgery's lab manager Robin Armstrong.
The victim's lawyer Jack Meyerson said that part of the reason his client was pursuing a civil case was to draw attention to Penn's alleged failure to supervise and contain McIntosh -- the former director of the Head Injury Center.
"The criminal case did not touch upon Penn's actions or inactions," Meyerson said. "We allege that Penn took part in a conspiracy to cover up both what they knew about McIntosh's history and to keep information from the district attorney."
But University spokeswoman Lori Doyle strongly denied the accusations and maintained that Penn had acted in a fully legal manner.
"The allegations in the complaint are absolutely baseless and outrageous," Doyle said.
In the complaint filed with the Court of Common Pleas, the plaintiff's attorneys allege that McIntosh took advantage of his close relationship with the victim's uncle to arrange an elaborate plan to seduce his victim, who is 27 years his junior.
The victim, a 2002 Brown University graduate, was preparing to move to Philadelphia to enroll in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine as a member of the Class of 2007.
What started as an invitation to discuss a part-time job offer turned into a night of bar-hopping that included the use of marijuana and, the suit alleges, the use of a lab substance as a date rape drug.
The complaint also claimed that the defendants "and others conspired and agreed to obstruct justice and hinder the criminal investigation and prosecution of [McIntosh] by withholding material evidence."
Such evidence included McIntosh's "history of acts of sexual harassment and his repeated abuse and mis-use of his position of prestige and authority at the Medical School to make sexual advances to women workers, students and colleagues."
Penn officials wanted to retain McIntosh as a professor to avoid losing the "millions of dollars of grant money" that his research brought in, the complaint says.
Doyle said the complaint is off base.
"There was no cover-up or conspiracy to protect Dr. McIntosh. In fact, Penn at no time had any reliable information of sexual misconduct relating to Dr. McIntosh that it failed to investigate or act upon."
"Penn has a strong sexual harassment policy which was not deviated from in this case," Doyle added.
Nembutal, according to court documents, "was used by persons working in the lab to anesthetize and kill rats" but could "also serve as a 'date rape' drug."
The suit states that the victim, after ingesting the drug unknowingly, became severely ill and was sexually assaulted in McIntosh's office.
Those charges were not allowed to be heard in the criminal case, but are again present for the civil action.
The case is still in its early stages, but both McIntosh and Penn could be liable for a monetary judgement should they lose. The sum would be decided by a jury, but Meyerson said that punitive damages will be sought.
The civil trial is projected to take place in September 2006, a distant date that Meyerson said was indicative of the slow pace of civil cases.
"Civil cases move more slowly than criminal cases," Meyerson said. "We are limited to monetary damages, while a criminal case could have and may still result in prison or jail."
