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Professor accused of touching student while watching steamy flick sues victim
By
Julia Marsh and
Ruth Brown
January 1, 2019 | 8:42pm
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An ousted Princeton professor who was accused of getting handsy with a 25-year-old student is targeting her again in a new lawsuit — by trying to force her to appear in person at a hearing about his behavior.
Former electrical-engineering professor Sergio Verdu, 60, was fired from the Ivy League school in September for breaking its rules against consensual relationships with students.
The move came a year after the school also found he’d violated its sexual-misconduct policy, following accusations from grad student Yeohee Im that he twice invited her to his place to watch movies alone then touched her inappropriately.
At the first meet-up, she said he invited her to watch erotic thriller “The Handmaiden,” during which she says he put his arm around her and asked if she had a boyfriend, according to a Title IX complaint published by HuffPost.
A week later, she says, he invited her to watch another film by the same director, adding in a text, “please call me Sergio,” along with a blushing emoji.
At that screening, she says he “made a joke” about a sex scene and “wrapped” his arm around her shoulders while “softly brushing his hand up and down.”
When she spilled some wine on her shirt, she says,
he insisted on cleaning it off, putting his hand up her shirt.
Afterward, she sent him an e-mail saying he’d made her uncomfortable and she wanted to “set some boundaries,” to which he agreed.
When Im came forward with her allegations, the school’s Title IX panel found Verdu guilty of sexual harassment — and later booted him for violating its policies by having a relationship with another grad student.
Now he’s facing ouster from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Verdu filed suit against the organization in Manhattan Monday, saying that allowing Im to testify over the telephone instead of in person denied him “the crucial right to confront his accuser.”
He wants the court to block the institute from holding a hearing unless Im attends.
“Having Ms. Im appear in person will . . . ensure that Ms. Im follows the procedures that are in place, is not coached in her answers and does not engage in surreptitious recording,” said his lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg.
Im did not return calls and the IEEE declined to comment.
