7 accused of harassment left UC Berkeley; cases newly revealed
A UC Berkeley swim coach sexually harassed a male co-worker over an 18-month period in 2014 and 2015 — loudly describing him as “my boyfriend” at a swim meet, subjecting him to repeated sexual comments despite his objections, asking him, “When are you coming to the dark side?” and offering him $300 for oral sex, according to public records released Tuesday by the campus.
Details about the campus investigation into his case and the light discipline were revealed in more than 400 pages of documents released by UC Berkeley on Tuesday night under a Public Records Act request from The Chronicle.
The documents include 17 cases investigated by the campus Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination dating back to 2008 in which investigators concluded that harassment had definitely or probably occurred.
The report said that in 2015 he sent a student a series of sexually harassing emails, one of which invited the student to go to Hawaii for a “dirty smoke-filled weekend of unadulterated guilty pleasure and sins.”
D’Abrera also spoke of killing himself, offered other students vacations, and, before resigning, suggested that students boo the department chairman and turn their back on him when he came to class to look into D’Abrera’s conduct, the report said.
According to the report, during a nine-month period in 2008-09, Anderson sent text messages and emails with sexual innuendos to a female student.
Alan Wong, a massage therapist at the university’s Recreational Sports Facility, who sexually assaulted a female student in 2014 by touching her genitals while giving her a massage, the report said.
Jeffrey Topacio, general manager of Cal Dining, who in 2015 bragged to co-workers about the size of his penis and directed a slur for homosexuals at a male worker who was weeping.
The incidents evoked the school’s admissions in recent months that it had known about harassment by some of its most eminent figures but took no serious disciplinary action until the public learned about their conduct.
Professor Geoffrey Marcy, a renowned astronomer, and Law School Dean Sujit Choudhry both resigned under pressure after reports surfaced that they had sexually harassed students or underlings.
Graham Fleming resigned as vice chancellor for research, but kept his job as a tenured chemistry professor, after an investigation found that he had “more likely than not” inappropriately touched and kissed a former employee.
The school has also announced its intention to fire Yann Hufnagel, an assistant men’s basketball coach, for allegedly harassing and frightening a female reporter.