The New Hampshire Attorney General, New Hampshire State Police and other law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation of three members of the Dartmouth College faculty.
Police are focusing their investigation on allegations of sexual misconduct, according to an email sent to students by Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon. Hanlon said the college is cooperating with the investigation.
Professors Bill Kelley, Todd Heatherton and Paul Whalen are all faculty in Dartmouth’s Center for Social Brain Sciences, according to their faculty web pages. The three professors have been placed on paid leave “with restricted access to Dartmouth property,” according to a news release posted on the college’s website.
The college previously announced its own investigation into the three professors.
Authorities are requesting that anyone with information about the allegations to contact New Hampshire State Police Trooper Catherine Shackford at 603-419-8014 or Scott Gilbert at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office at 603-931-9570.
Hanlon’s email to students said the College is taking the allegations seriously.
“It is important to remember that investigations are ongoing, with no official findings yet produced,” he wrote. “However, we take these allegations very seriously and are pursuing our own independent investigations in coordination with law enforcement officials.”
According to the latest data released by Dartmouth College, there were 25 rapes reported at the college in 2016. That represents an increase over the 20 reported rapes in 2015. That data is anonymized, making it impossible to know if any of those reports are related to university faculty or other employees.
