Eric Langborgh

When Yale Professor Antonio Lasaga took an indefinite leave of absence from his teaching duties and resigned as master of a residence hall in response to being charged with child pornography and sexual assault of a minor, many figured that disciplinary action was soon to follow. However, Lasaga remains on Yale University’s payroll as a tenured professor.

"These charges are very serious and deeply troubling," Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said, "and the university will make an assessment in the future about his status as more information becomes available."

Conroy declined to elaborate to Campus Report as to what further information might warrant a change in Lasaga’s status.

Revocation of tenure at Yale is rare, said Provost Alison Richard, Yale’s chief academic and financial officer, and it requires the convening of the University Tribunal—a body that has never assembled—to reach a decision. At the time of this printing, there are no plans to convene the tribunal.

"Moral turpitude, not criminal conviction," is the administration’s standard for revoking tenure, said University President Richard Levin.

Conroy refused to say whether pedophilia falls within the parameters of the definition of "moral turpitude," and wouldn’t impart a definition for the term. "(If) the question was ‘If someone is convicted of a crime, does that automatically lead to their dismissal from the university?’ the answer is ‘No.’"

Conroy added, "And at the same time, you don’t have to be convicted of a crime to lose your tenure."

When asked what would happen if Lasaga is proven guilty, Conroy said, "Call us when that happens."

Conroy confirmed that though Lasaga is not performing any work at present, he remains on indefinite paid leave. Although Conroy wouldn’t offer an explanation why Lasaga was being paid while not doing work, he said that, "the general rule is that no one can be on leave for more than one year without permission of Yale Corporation, which is the board of trustees."

From the beginning of the Lasaga saga, many students took issue with the way the administration was handling the affair.

"We are hurt and annoyed that no one has been talking about this," said sophomore Kyle LaBush to Yale Daily News following Lasaga’s abrupt resignation in early November. "If we had just known that there was an investigation, we would have felt better about losing someone we really liked and respected."

At the time of the university's announcement of Lasaga’s resignation, Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead told an assembly of Saybrook students that "prying is futile" and that "we trust your maturity."

"For the administration to speak about the investigation when we are not conducting it would create the risk that we would involuntarily convey imperfect knowledge or a false sense of certainty," Brodhead said in a written statement.

"(His) implication that being ‘mature’ means failing to pry is insulting and disturbing," wrote sophomore Kate Mason in the Yale Herald. "His belief…that mature and intelligent people should not seek out the truth about an issue that deeply effects their lives and their school, that the Yale administration needs to go to such lengths to keep students in the dark that they had to learn from a television show what was happening under their own roof…brings up the question of whether Brodhead believes we students have the right to know anything at all."

Amidst the scorn, Conroy defended Yale’s administration by telling Campus Report, "The University’s discussions with students…were reasonable, made sense, and were fair…. I reject the idea that the University has mishandled its relations with students."

Indeed, many students felt the same. Said one student, "I don’t see the need for us to find out more information."

"What is important is the ultimate resolution of this matter by Yale," said Conroy. "It is premature to make any judgement…about the way in which Yale has addressed this matter until Yale has finally addressed it."

However, sophomore Jeffrey Dorough was confused and embittered by the administration’s lack of action. "When Mr. Lasaga, a man accused of a disturbing crime who has broken court orders, is still a paid member of the Yale faculty, it speaks to a terrible lack of good judgement on the part of the administration."

On January 5 at the New Haven Superior Court in Connecticut, Lasaga—a distiguished professor of geology and geophysics—pleaded "not guilty" to charges of sexual molestation of a 13-year-old boy. Connecticutlaw enforcement authorities implicated Lasaga on two counts of sexual assault in the first degree, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and two counts of promoting a minor in an obscene performance.

The "obscene performance" refers to at least two videotaped sex sessions with a 13-year-old boy whom he met years ago through a New Haven child mentoring program. The FBI confiscated the videos on a search warrant of Lasaga’s Saybrook residence in relation to previous federal charges of downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Lasaga initially resigned his post at Saybrook College—a residential hall at Yale—and took a leave of absence from his teaching duties in the geology and geophysics department on November 6. Although Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead cited "personal reasons" for Lasaga’s abrupt resignation, it was learned shortly thereafter by the New Haven Register that Lasaga was under investigation by the FBI for potential involvement with child pornography.

After receiving a search warrant for Lasaga’s offices and Saybrook residence, FBI agents found hundreds of pornographic pictures of children and two computers that were used to download, store and print child pornography. Lasaga was formally charged with violation of federal child pornography statutes on November 18 and surrendered himself to U.S. Marshals the next day.

Already suspected of sexual misconduct with certain minors, Lasaga was released on $50,000 bail with the stipulation that he not contact any children while the case was pending. However, he was re-arrested on December 9 for violating that stipulation by being in the vicinity of a minor who was a potential witness in the case.

At the time of his initial arrest, Lasaga had admitted that for the previous two years he had been downloading pornographic images on University computers at his Saybrook residence—most of which were of nude boys in various poses, and some of which depicted boys in sexual contact with men. In fact, Lasaga continued to download lewd images of minors as recently as the day before the search of his Saybrook rooms.

Lasaga was often seen, even in his classrooms and office, with a 13-year-old boy whom he had originally met through the New Haven child mentoring program a few years previous.

According to court documents, Lasaga drove by the boy’s apartment complex as many as eight times on December 7, eventually lurking about at the boy’s school bus stop within minutes of its expected arrival. The boy’s mother and a family social worker spotted Lasaga as they pulled up behind him, prompting him to speed off to a nearby parking lot while they wrote down his license plate number.

Lasaga is currently confined to his residence and under electronic surveillance while his alleged 13-year-old victim is undergoing treatment for his mental health. The Yale Child Study Center has provided counselors for both the boy and his parents.