Professor's Case Stalled, But Not Work
By Janice D'Arcy, Courant Staff Writer
Originally published in The Hartford Courant, November 23, 2001
The Yale professor convicted of sexually abusing a young boy in his care was supposed to be serving his sentence by now, three years after he was first arrested and close to two years since he admitted guilt.
But Anthony Lasaga's case is still stalled in judicial tangles. The federal sentencing date has been pushed back indefinitely and the state and civil cases are still pending.
That doesn't mean, however, that the disgraced professor has been idle. In fact Lasaga, shuttered inside his Cheshire home under house arrest, has been actively researching, publishing and collaborating. Reached at his home this week, he declined to speak in depth about his situation, but of his scientific work, he said he's been contributing "a huge amount."
In fact, this January, his groundbreaking research will be published in a journal despite controversy over whether the author's work can be separated from the author's crimes.
Lasaga was a top professor at Yale and renowned worldwide for his work in geochemistry when investigators, acting on a tip, discovered hundreds of thousands of images of child pornography in his campus apartment. They also found a videotape Lasaga made that showed him sexually abusing a boy whom he mentored.
Police arrested Lasaga in December 1998. His defense team worked out a plea agreement that had Lasaga pleading guilty to two charges against him. In return he would serve a 20-year sentence in federal prison.
Just before his sentencing, however, his lawyer challenged the constitutionality of one of the charges to which he pleaded guilty. U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson has yet to rule on that motion and his scheduler this week said Lasaga's case will be in limbo at least into 2002.
In the meantime, Lasaga has been fired from Yale and has been living free on bond but confined to his home. He is allowed to leave the house, where he lives alone, only for religious services or medical needs. He is not allowed the use of a computer.
Lasaga can use the telephone and receive visitors and it is through such contact that he has been able to publish regularly, often collaborating with former colleagues.
Journal editors often do not pay for submissions - being published is often reward enough for professors and researchers whose supporters expect them to publicize their work. For Lasaga, publishing allows him to remain among the top scholars in his field.
And for Frank Podosek, editor of a respected journal called Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, that reward is too much.
"Everyone of us is a citizen of the world. I have kids," he said this week from his office at Washington University in St. Louis. "I strongly disapprove of Professor Lasaga's behavior. I don't want to carry on as if it doesn't matter, it does matter."
Podosek rejected two Lasaga submissions last year. But the journal's sponsors overruled him and the research was being evaluated during the past several months.
Other editors at the journal have now decided to publish one of the submissions, research Lasaga worked on with a Pennsylvania State University professor. It is scheduled to be published in the January edition, which will be sent to about 1,200 members of the organizations that sponsor the journal and another 1,000 research institutions, including Yale.
Even with his research, however, Lasaga's reputation has surely been damaged. His name has been dropped from the latest edition of "The American Men and Women of Science." His colleagues are reluctant to discuss him or his work.
Even his research collaborators, many of whom were contacted this week, are leery of discussing his work publicly. Andreas Luttge, who worked on the submission to Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta that is still under review, said he was busy when he was reached at his Rice University office Monday. He said he would call back, but never did.
In the meantime, the family of Lasaga's victim has silently waited for Lasaga's imprisonment. Fred Trotta, a New Haven attorney who represents the family, said the civil suit they have brought against Lasaga is awaiting the outcome of the criminal trials.
"It would be nice to say it's all over," Trotta said. "I think they'd like to close this chapter in their lives."
