A slap on the wrist

I used to play soccer with a girl called "Sissy." Sissy was a lot of things, but a wuss definitely wasn't one of them. When receiving a pass, Sissy's elbows would automatically fly up, ready to knock the teeth out of whoever was guarding her. During the season, she got red cards on a regular basis for violently fouling other players. In theory, receiving a red card in soccer is supposed to prevent someone from playing for a few games so she can think about what she's done.

Although Sissy played dirty, she was also very good, and my coach always felt like she was too important to lose. Whenever possible, he'd sneak her into the game and only take her out when she got noticed for fouling. After watching Sissy grab a girl by the neck and throw her to the ground, I felt like I didn't want to be a part of that kind of team anymore.

It's been a couple years since I've played soccer competitively, and I wasn't expecting to feel that kind of disgust again. But about two weeks ago, Philadelphia Judge Rayford Means sentenced former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh to as little as a year of house arrest for sexual assault. The maximum possible sentence was 11 years in prison, and the prosecution was looking for McIntosh to spend at least five years behind bars.

The victim, the niece of McIntosh's best friend, was visiting Penn while planning to attend Penn's Veterinary School, and her uncle had asked McIntosh to show her around campus. During her visit, the star professor took her to three different University City bars where the victim became ill and publicly vomited twice. The prosecution charged that McIntosh drugged the victim at some point with sodium pentobarbital from his laboratory. Afterwards, McIntosh took the victim back to his campus office, gave her marijuana and sexually assaulted her repeatedly as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Considering the terrible nature of this crime, it's hard to understand how the judge could possibly give a sentence as light as house arrest. According to Means himself, he took into account McIntosh's research and work with stroke victims and patients with brain injuries. Apparently, this makes McIntosh, like my former teammate Sissy, too important to lose.

Of course, McIntosh's research has the potential to do a lot of good and really help people who need it. There's no doubt about that. But there also shouldn't be any doubt that no one is above the law, no matter what his profession.

Unfortunately, Penn acted no better than Means when dealing with McIntosh. Penn's first investigation on behalf of the victim turned up essentially nothing. Only after the victim brought charges with the district attorney did Penn do a second investigation that involved actually interviewing the women McIntosh worked with in his lab.

The second time around, Penn found a lot more than nothing: alleged inappropriate relationships with lab workers and janitors and advances toward colleagues. McIntosh's behavior was so blatant and disruptive that three of his coworkers staged an intervention on his behalf. Mysteriously, when Penn was subpoenaed to hand over all documents relating to McIntosh, this second report was left out and had to be supplied later. At best Penn's conduct was dishonest and at worst, an obstruction of justice.

Obviously, Penn was also reluctant to lose someone as important as McIntosh. His work at the University's Head Injury Center and research into the possibilities of stem cells certainly brought Penn lots of renown and, more importantly, funding.

It's unsettling to think that I'm now a part of not one but two institutions that believe there are actually people in this world who are above the law and too important to be properly punished. Given McIntosh's apparent history of misconduct, it's unlikely that a year at home will put an end to his transgressions. It's hard to forget that, since Sissy was never really punished, she started to think that what she did was OK, red card or not.

Amara Rockar is a sophomore political science major from St. Louis. Out of Range appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.