Woman says Dartmouth professor under criminal investigation groped her in 2002
Todd Heatherton is one of three professors at the New Hampshire college being investigated by the state attorney general.
A University of California-Davis professor alleges that one of the three Dartmouth College professors under criminal investigation for “serious misconduct” groped her when she was a graduate student in 2002, Slate reports. Simine Vazire, now a tenured psychology professor herself, told the publication the incident involving Todd Heatherton occurred at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology when she was 21 years old. She said she found herself standing beside Heatherton, who she hadn’t been introduced to, with a group of students and faculty at the event when “he reached his hand behind her, out of view of the others, and squeezed her butt,” Slate reports.
Vazire told the publication that weeks before the announcement of a criminal investigation, she learned from a colleague that Dartmouth was looking for information related to potential sexual misconduct by members of its faculty. She told Slate she reached out the chair of the psychology department and was connected with “an external investigator.” She says she told the investigator on October 17 that Heatherton groped her in 2002. News about the investigation broke on October 25.
She told Slate she wasn’t upset by the encounter and didn’t want it to overshadow the ongoing investigation by Dartmouth and the New Hampshire attorney general.
“This one ass-grabbing, it was just kind of a blip on the radar,” Vazire said, according to Slate.
Heatherton, 56, told Slate in a statement he did not remember touching Vazire “in any way” at the conference.
“I have just recently heard of this for the first time, but, if I touched her as she described, all I can say is that I am profoundly sorry,” he wrote to the publication.
The specifics of the allegations against the three professors, who are all tenured faculty members in Dartmouth’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have yet to be made public. Dartmouth College President Phil Hanlon said Friday that the sexual misconduct allegations against Heatherton, William Kelly, and Paul Whalen do not involve anyone, students or otherwise, who participated in their research projects.
A Dartmouth spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday. Heatherton did not return a request for comment.
On the allegations that are under investigation, attorneys for Heatherton issued a statement to The Boston Globe saying he was cooperating with authorities:
Dr. Heatherton is confident that he has not violated any written policy of Dartmouth, including policies relating to sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. He has engaged in no sexual relations with any student.
All three professors are on paid leave while the joint criminal investigation by five law enforcement agencies is conducted.
