Yale Prof. Charged With Sex. Assault

Yale University Professor and former master of Saybrook College Antonio C. Lasaga was arraigned yesterday on two charges of first-degree sexual assault on a minor, following his arrest Dec. 22. Lasaga pled not guilty.

Lasaga was arrested in his Connecticut home and charged with one count of risk of injury to a minor and one count of "promoting a minor in an obscene performance."

This was Lasaga's second arrest in the past two months. At the time of his most recent arrest, he was under house arrest for an upcoming federal trial stemming from charges of possessing child pornography. As a condition of his release on $50,000 bond, Lasaga was to have no contact with children.

However, federal prosecutors claim Lasaga was repeatedly seen near the home and bus stop of a 13-year-old boy.

Lasaga's personal attorney, Jeremiah F. Donovan, told the Yale Daily News that the recent sexual assault case involved the same boy whom Lasaga was allegedly trying to contact, leading to his placement under house arrest in early December.

WTNH-TV, citing unidentified police sources, said Lasaga met the boy through School Volunteers for New Haven, Inc., a tutoring program for inner city schoolchildren. Lasaga has volunteered at the program since 1992.

The station also reported that the boy appears in an obscene videotape that the FBI seized in a raid.

Legally, the two cases are completely separate, as the child pornography charge is a federal case and the sexual assault charge is a state case. Donovan is currently representing Lasaga in both cases.

Lasaga is now out on $250,000 bail after this most recent arrest.

In late November, Lasaga was arrested by the U.S. Attorney's Office, following an FBI raid of his Saybrook rooms on Nov. 6, where they took computers, print-outs, and zip drives.

The raid was the result of a months-long FBI investigation after a graduatestudent at the Yale Geology lab noticed thatLasaga's computer password had been used todownload child pornography from the Internet lastsummer. Someone else saw him transfer pictures ofnude boys and boys having sex with men onto hisSaybrook computer.

According to court documents, Lasaga told FBIagents he downloaded child pornography for twoyears.

Lasaga resigned as master of Saybrook on theday of the FBI raid.

He was put on indefinite paid leave. Lasaga hasbeen part of the Yale faculty for 14 years as aprofessor of geology and geophysics.

Thomas P. Conroy, Yale's acting director ofpublic affairs, said Lasaga is still on paid leavefrom the University and "when and if that statuschanges, we will make that known."

Since the time of the arrest, the officialposition of Yale has remained unchanged Conroysaid.

"We said we would make an assessment of thesituation in the New Year, when more informationbecomes available, and that is still the case," hesaid.

Donovan told reporters the day of his arrest onsexual assault charges, "A month ago he wasleading what most of us would view as a rich, fulland successful life as one of the world's leadinggeochemists. He woke up the next morning and hadit all come crashing down."

Lasaga is married with two grown sons. Asprofessor of geology and geophysics at Yale,Lasaga taught three classes, was involved inresearch and served as the director of graduatestudies for his department.

Outside of the university, he is an associateeditor of the American Journal of Science, editorof Chemical Geology, a councillor of theGeochemical and is a life fellow of theMineralogical Society of America.

Lasaga also taught chemistry at Harvard in the1970s, and became a lecturer in 1976. He thentaught at Penn State before coming to Yale in1984.

Lasaga's first hearing for the childpornography case is scheduled for Feb. 9.

--Associated Press reports were used in thereporting of his story.

According to court documents, Lasaga told FBIagents he downloaded child pornography for twoyears.

Lasaga resigned as master of Saybrook on theday of the FBI raid.

He was put on indefinite paid leave. Lasaga hasbeen part of the Yale faculty for 14 years as aprofessor of geology and geophysics.

Thomas P. Conroy, Yale's acting director ofpublic affairs, said Lasaga is still on paid leavefrom the University and "when and if that statuschanges, we will make that known."

Since the time of the arrest, the officialposition of Yale has remained unchanged Conroysaid.

"We said we would make an assessment of thesituation in the New Year, when more informationbecomes available, and that is still the case," hesaid.

Donovan told reporters the day of his arrest onsexual assault charges, "A month ago he wasleading what most of us would view as a rich, fulland successful life as one of the world's leadinggeochemists. He woke up the next morning and hadit all come crashing down."

Lasaga is married with two grown sons. Asprofessor of geology and geophysics at Yale,Lasaga taught three classes, was involved inresearch and served as the director of graduatestudies for his department.

Outside of the university, he is an associateeditor of the American Journal of Science, editorof Chemical Geology, a councillor of theGeochemical and is a life fellow of theMineralogical Society of America.

Lasaga also taught chemistry at Harvard in the1970s, and became a lecturer in 1976. He thentaught at Penn State before coming to Yale in1984.

Lasaga's first hearing for the childpornography case is scheduled for Feb. 9.

--Associated Press reports were used in thereporting of his story.