UConn Sued Over Sexual Harassment

By John Christoffersen Associated Press

NEW HAVEN (AP) — An immigrant who won asylum in the United States is alleging in a federal lawsuit that his supervisor at the University of Connecticut repeatedly forced him to have sex in his office.

The man, identified only as John Doe, says UConn found that Mark Wentzel had violated its policies against sexual harassment and fired Wentzel last year from his job as executive director of international services and programs.

“The harassment was severe, including forcing plaintiff to engage in both anal and oral sex with Wentzel in the workplace at UConn for a period of two and one-half years,” the lawsuit states. “He was completely dependent upon Wentzel for his livelihood and his assurances that he would help plaintiff to bring his family to the United States.”

The lawsuit names UConn only as a defendant.

A UConn spokesman declined to comment. Wentzel’s home phone was disconnected and a search of databases failed to turn up a number for him. Parties to the lawsuit could not say if he had an attorney.

The office Wentzel worked for helps international students and scholars and promotes greater internationalization of the UConn campus.

Barbara Gardner, the attorney for the plaintiff, declined to comment.

The man, who filed the lawsuit last week, said he knew Wentzel since 1986 when he came to the US for treatment for injuries sustained in the Afghan war against the former Soviet Union. Wentzel introduced him to a human rights attorney and he was granted asylum in 1986, according to the lawsuit.

Wentzel would ask the man, who worked as a program aide at UConn, to come to his office on the pretext of discussing business. He would then lock the office door and force him to have sex two to three times per week, the lawsuit alleges.

The man said he warned Wentzel “a thousand times” not to touch him, the lawsuit states.

In 2006, Wentzel falsely accused the man of threatening him with a knife and a gun while they were dining with friends at a restaurant in an effort to get the man fired, the lawsuit alleges. The man was arrested and suspended with pay.

When the man filed a sexual harassment complaint with UConn, Wentzel threatened to file false criminal charges alleging the man committed a crime against Wentzel’s family member in 2000, the lawsuit alleges. The man said he pleaded no contest to the charge last year because he could not afford an attorney.

The lawsuit accuses UConn of subjecting the man to unlawful sexual harassment and seeks unspecified damages.