Houston, Texas -- A black professor at the University of Houston who was suspended for allegedly sexually harassing a graduate student has sued both the student and the university. He says Houston discriminated against him and the student defamed him.
H. Prentice Baptiste, a professor of educational leadership, was suspended without pay in August. In a lawsuit filed last month, he charged that Houston’s actions were racist.
Mr. Baptiste, who was chairman of his department when he was suspended, also filed a defamation suit against Analinda Moreno, the student who brought the charge against him.
A university judicial board decided in June 1992 that Mr. Baptiste had sexually harassed Ms. Moreno through “unwelcome intimate physical contact,” Houston officials said. The next month, Mr. Baptiste was told he was being suspended and would not be considered for reinstatement until a counselor determined he was fit to return.
Ms. Moreno was working for Mr. Baptiste as a graduate assistant in December 1991, when, she contends, he harassed her. According to a complaint she filed with the university, she was in his office discussing a project when Mr. Baptiste hugged her, reached inside her pants, and made crude comments.
During a hearing on her complaint, another woman -- a former graduate student -- testified that Mr. Baptiste had assaulted her while she was a teaching assistant in his department. She accused him of pinning her down and committing an obscene act after she refused to have sex with him.
Mr. Baptiste, who did not return a reporter’s phone calls, has denied that either incident took place. In his lawsuit, he said he had received counseling from a local psychologist who wrote a letter to the administration in September saying that Mr. Baptiste was able to return to his job.
However, Lee B. Liggett, general counsel for the University of Houston System, said the university did not believe Mr. Baptiste had fulfilled the counseling requirements. He would not elaborate. Mr. Liggett also denied that the university’s actions were racist.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Baptiste accused the university of treating him unfairly because of his race, because he is married to a white woman, and because he had urged the university to consider a black person when naming a new president.
Mr. Baptiste accused Ms. Moreno of filing the harassment complaint to get even with him for failing to give her credit for a project they had worked on together. Ms. Moreno’s lawyer denied that, and said her client’s name had been included on the publication.
