#MeToo has hit one of the nation’s top criminal-justice colleges.
John Jay College has placed four professors — including three former department chairmen — on paid leave following sexual-harassment complaints, sources told The Post.
Among the accused are Barry Spunt, an associate sociology professor and former chair of that department; Anthony Marcus, a professor and former chair of the anthropology department; and Ric Curtis, a professor and former chair of the anthropology department and former interim chair of the department of law and police science. An adjunct professor also stands accused.
After The Post began asking questions late last week about the allegations, the Midtown-based public college’s president, Karol Mason, sent an e-mail alerting students and staffers to the situation.
“Upon receiving complaints alleging inappropriate conduct by certain faculty members, we launched an investigation into the matter and have engaged an outside investigator to assist us. We are committed to a swift, thorough, and fair investigation, which is ongoing,” Mason wrote Friday.
A John Jay grad student said of the message: “I was so disgusted that I deleted it. For someone to be teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and engaging in [that behavior] is disgusting.
‘It’s a place that is supposed to be better than that . . . They should be held to a higher standard . . . There’s no excuse for this.’
- A John Jay grad student
“It’s a place that is supposed to be better than that . . . They should be held to a higher standard . . . There’s no excuse for this.”
The state Inspector General’s Office is already probing other employment issues at John Jay, but a spokesman at the office would not comment on whether it was involved in this matter.
A college spokesman would not provide information other than to reiterate Mason’s statement. The college would not say if the accusers were students or staff or both.
The college is taxpayer-funded and part of the City University of New York. It enrolls some 15,000 students, many of whom aspire to join law enforcement or already work as cops and firefighters.
Public records show Curtis was paid $194,557 in 2017, Marcus got $150,854, and Spunt $125,362.
Spunt’s lawyer, Carmen Jack Giordano, said his client “plans on cooperating with their investigation, and he will be vindicated at the conclusion based on the evidence that I’ve seen of the falsity of the allegations made against him.”
Giordano would not detail the allegations other than to say they were “vague and nebulous” and made by a single individual.
“Professor Spunt is completely innocent, and it’s a shame how people with hidden agendas and nefarious intentions can manipulate the system and the public in the name of #MeToo,” he said.
Spunt has taught at John Jay since 1993. His research has included the history of heroin in New York City.
Marcus, whose automatic e-mail response said he was “on leave,” declined to comment to The Post when a reporter phoned.
The prof has done research in honor killings, prostitution and the sexual exploitation of children, according to his résumé.
Curtis, an oft-quoted expert on drug use and the heroin market in New York City, did not respond to requests for comment. He joined John Jay as an adjunct in 1988.
Tabrina Youmans, a 2017 John Jay grad who did research with Curtis, called him low-key, “understanding and approachable.”
“I don’t see his behavior ever being misconstrued as anything other than professional even outside of a classroom setting,” Youmans said.
Classes at John Jay, on West 59th Street, began on Aug. 27.
The college faced a controversy last September after Michael Isaacson, an adjunct economics professor there and self-proclaimed anti-fascist activist, tweeted that “it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.” He was put on leave and no longer teaches there.
And last fall, the college came under fire for hosting an exhibit of art by Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The Inspector General’s Office last year launched a probe into the college’s employment of two retired NYPD cops to chauffeur former President Jeremy Travis, who resigned in August 2017.
Both ex-cops were collecting state pensions, and most of their pay came from the CUNY Research Foundation to skirt state rules that prevented them from holding taxpayer-funded jobs without a waiver.