Professor's lawsuit alleges cover-up, retaliation

Posted at: 10/20/2009 8:10 AM | Updated at: 10/20/2009 9:14 AM
By: Kurt Christopher, KOB.com

Several University of New Mexico administrators are accused of a cover-up in a sexual harassment investigation.

The Albuquerque Journal reports a lawsuit filed by Sharon Warner, a UNM professor and director of its creative writing program, accuses university president David Schmidly of pulling the plug on an internal sexual harassment investigation into the activities of associate professor Lisa Chavez.

Chavez posed on a sadomasochism website as "Mistress Jade" in sexually suggestive photos with at least one of her graduate students.

The newspaper says Warner's husband, Teddy, who is a UNM research faculty member, is also planning to file suit after alleging the university pulled its funding for his salary and failed to provide him with adequate office space in retaliation for his wife speaking out.

The university says it can not comment on pending litigation.  However, UNM has said that its investigation determined that "no crimes were committed, that no faculty member engaged in undue influence over any students or created a hostile learning environment," according to The Journal.

Warner's lawsuit contents that despite complaints from students and faculty that Chavez had created a hostile environment, the English chairman at the time pressured Warner and another faculty member not to file a complaint, the newspaper reports.  The suit seeks damages for breach of contract, bad faith and retaliation.

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