Today's Topic: Corrupticut Sex Pervs in the News Again (COURANT)
Mort Zuckerman
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Subject: Today's Topic: Corrupticut Sex Pervs in the News Again
(COURANT)
Date: Jul 21, 2009 8:32 AM
Wow!
That's Today's Topic on ActionLyme, too!!
http://www.actionlyme.org
http://www.courant.com
(But then, Corrupticut only has one topic.)
Kathleen M. Dickson
======================================
http://www.courant.com/community/storrs/hc-uconn-sex-lawsuit-0721.art0jul21,0,5960589.story
courant.com/community/storrs/hc-uconn-sex-
lawsuit-0721.art0jul21,0,5960589.story
Courant.com
AT UCONN
Turmoil For Former UConn Employee
By DAVE ALTIMARI
The Hartford Courant
July 21, 2009
Mark Wentzel was flying high in more ways than one in 2005, making
multiple trips to Dubai as one of the University of Connecticut's
point people on a plan to build a satellite campus in one of the
richest countries in the world.
As director of the university's Department of International Services
and Programs, Wentzel worked hard to establish a foothold for UConn
within the Arab country.
But a year later the Dubai dream was stalling. And back home, his
department was in turmoil.
One employee, an Afghan man whom Wentzel had helped gain political
asylum, filed a complaint in June 2006 with university officials that
he was sexually harassed by Wentzel. A few months later, an African
American employee filed a federal lawsuit against the school and
Wentzel, claiming he discriminated against her.
The employee in the discrimination lawsuit, Herbertia Williams,
received about $192,000 in a settlement from the university last year
and now works in Virginia.
UConn officials have not detailed the outcome of the Afghan man's
complaint.
The story took a more ominous and bizarre turn just this monthwhen the
Afghan man, who is now on the state's sex-offender registry himself,
filed a federal lawsuit of his own against UConn under the pseudonym
of John Doe, alleging that Wentzel sexually abused him for more than
two years in his university office. The Courant is not publishing
Doe's name because he might have been a sexual assault victim.
The lawsuit by Doe is the latest development in a volatile 23-year
association between Wentzel and Doe. Characterizations of their
alleged "special relationship" have been uncovered in legal documents,
and among the allegations are:
•A threat of blackmail.
•A criminal complaint by Wentzel that led to Doe's placement on the
state's sex offender registry.
•A claim that Wentzel created a bogus job for Doe.
•A claim that Wentzel repeatedly forced Doe to have sex with him in
his locked office.
Neither man works at the university any longer. UConn declined to
comment on specifics of the federal lawsuit.
'Special Relationship'
Doe's lawsuit says the relationship between the two men dates to 1986,
when Doe entered the United States for treatment of injuries he
suffered during the Afghan War with the Soviet Union. Wentzel, the
suit says, helped Doe find a lawyer to help him win political asylum.
Wentzel got Doe a full-time job in his department in 2002 as a program
aide and then promoted him to business service supervisor in 2003,
giving him a salary increase, according to the lawsuit.
At the same time, Doe and Wentzel's family were living in the same
duplex in Willimantic, land records show.
It was during this time, Doe's lawsuit alleges, that Wentzel
repeatedly sexually assaulted him in Wentzel's office and when the two
took a trip together.
In his lawsuit, Doe says Wentzel would ask him to come into his office
on the pretext of discussing business and would then close the door
and try to kiss and touch him. Wentzel then began forcing Doe to
engage in oral and anal sex in the office, two or three times a week
for at least two years, the lawsuit alleges.
Doe says in the lawsuit that he did not report Wentzel to law
enforcement authorities or UConn officials because he depended on
Wentzel for his job and because Wentzel had promised to help him get
his family out of Afghanistan and into the United States.
A "special relationship" between Doe and Wentzel was also described in
Williams' lawsuit.
Her lawsuit claimed Wentzel gave Doe special treatment, including
allegedly committing fraud by creating a new position for Doe and
bumping his salary up two grades.
"Because of the special relationship, Defendant Wentzel caused the
University of Connecticut to waste public funds by paying ... for
capabilities that he did not possess," Williams said in her lawsuit
about Doe's position.
The university eventually rescinded the position, and Doe was making
only about $39,000 when he left the school in March 2008.
Doe did eventually file a sexual harassment complaint with the
university's Office of Diversity and Equity, in June 2006, according
to his lawsuit.
Wentzel's Response
In his lawsuit, Doe says he began resisting Wentzel's sexual advances
after Wentzel returned from one of his trips to Dubai. Wentzel
suggested he leave the university, the suit alleges.
During this stretch Wentzel got more news: His dream of a UConn campus
in Dubai was dying because of human rights concerns raised by
legislators and advocacy groups once the plan became public. In
February 2007, UConn officials announced they were backing off on
Dubai.
Doe says in his lawsuit that his last day of working for Wentzel's
office was in May 2006, and that he filed his complaint with the
diversity office the next month. After that filing, the suit says,
Wentzel tried to blackmail Doe into dropping the harassment complaint
by threatening to have Doe charged with "false criminal charges."
Court records show that Wentzel did file a criminal complaint with
university police, alleging that Doe had committed a sexual offense
against a relative back in 2000.
Doe was arrested on charges of risk of injury to a minor and in
January 2008 pleaded no contest. In his lawsuit, Doe says he pleaded
no contest only because he could not afford to pay the legal fees to
take the case to trial. A Superior Court judge gave him a seven-year
suspended sentence, plus probation. He also had to register as a sex
offender with the state police for 10 years and had to enroll in a sex-
offender treatment program.
In March of this year, state officials charged Doe with violating his
probation because he failed to complete the treatment program.
Officials said Doe refused to admit his guilt, a first step in
completing treatment. He could face up to seven years in state prison
if a judge in Superior Court in Danielson revokes his probation.
Wentzel was suspended by the university as a result of its internal
investigation into Doe's complaint, Doe's lawsuit says. He left UConn
in July 2008, leaving his $71,000 salary behind, and is now running a
pizza parlor outside Tampa, Fla. He could not be reached for comment.
Doe left UConn in March 2008 and it is unclear where he works now.
Manchester attorney Barbara Gardner, who filed the federal lawsuit on
his behalf, declined to comment.
UConn spokesman Richard Veilleux would not comment on the specifics of
the Doe lawsuit but did say the school "took broad, immediate and
appropriate action" after Doe's original complaint to the school's
Office of Diversity and Equity.
"The appropriateness of our actions were supported by the Connecticut
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity, who dismissed a similar
complaint [made by Doe] against the university," Veilleux said.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
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