Oops! Wesleyan Accidentally Frames Cornell Prof for Murder
Pop quiz! Stephen P. Morgan and Stephen L. Morgan: Can you spot the difference?
The former is a 29-year-old, anti-semitic, wig-wearing, gun-toting, “okay to kill Jews and go on a killing spree”-journaling skeez, charged with the recent murder of former classmate Johanna Justin-Jinich. The latter is a 38-year-old sociology professor, Harvard grad and Rhodes Scholar, who heads up Cornell’s Center for the Study of Inequality. Stumped? Here’s a hint: they look about as similar as Penn and Teller.
If you’re still confused, don’t worry; Wesleyan administrators were also left head-scratching. They circulated the Cornell professor’s photo—rather than the student’s—to police officers, employees, undergraduates and, oh, the global newsmedia, in connection with the murder. Doh!
Here’s the amiable academic formerly known as madman murder-suspect:
I said to my wife when it happened, “We have the same name, but thank God I don’t look like him.” I knew the whole thing was going on because it was such a big story, but to see myself inserted directly into it was very shocking.
All jokes aside, this unequivocally sucks. Remember Yale’s similar snafu in the aftermath of the still unsolved Susanne Jovin murder? The Bulldogs leaked the name of her obviously-innocent thesis advisor to the media, and started rumors that the pair were having an affair; it ruined his career. So much for learning from your mistakes, higher education. Well, at least Wesleyan has the dignity to apologize—to state publicly that they made a mistake, and confirm that Prof. Morgan is not, in fact, a homicidal maniac. Right…?
All they’ve said is they regret this happened to me, which sounded to me like something written by a lawyer.
Good lord. Pic comparisons, textbook academic arrogance, litigation and Roger Rabbit after the jump.
Is Wesleyan run by blind barristers? Well, maybe just douchebags: Apparently, they waffled for three hours—after a stern talking to from the police—before removing the prof’s photo from their website. The lackadaisical Cardinals also ignored remonstrances from scores of students and tipsters, informing them that they had majorly fucked up.
Now, they won’t even give the wrongly accused Cornellite an apology. This is just classless. We’re all for tort reform, but Stephen P: sue the bastards! Oh good, you have:
Morgan’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Middletown Superior Court, claims “humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress … and injury to his career.” It seeks unspecified monetary damages for what it calls Wesleyan’s recklessness and negligence.
Wesleyan—apparently too busy nursing its inferiority complex, listening to MGMT, playing frisbee, braiding its hair and refurbishing its clothing-optional dorms—declined comment.
Now, it’s easy to mistake one person for another in a moment of passion (just ask my exes), but honestly, this is academic assholery elevated to high art… Really, Wesleyan? You’re swarming with professors and students, and you still can’t tell the difference? (A Facebook search for ‘Stephen Morgan’ yields over 4,900 hits.) And now you won’t even man up and say sorry?
IvyGate feels for Cornell Professor Stephen L. (got that?) Morgan and hopes that students will not stand for these rude, myopic shenanigans. You’d better be careful, Wesleyan. Carry on like this—with frame-jobs and disrespectful douchery—and you’ll confirm all of the snickerings of the faux-elite: “granola-y, Commie-run Ivy-safety.” Don’t make me believe it, you adorable hippies; do the right thing.
Prof. Stephen P. Morgan: balding, not a murderer
VS.
Stephen L. Morgan: super trustworthy-looking
And because we like to include late 80s cartoon slash human movies with reaaaaally attractive (cartoon) female leads…
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Read more: apologize you jerks, Cornell, Johanna Justin-Jinich, murder, professor, roger rabbit, stephen l morgan, stephen p morgan, wesleyan
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December 26th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
it’s justin-jinich not linich
December 27th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
this story is super old — lawsuit hit 3 weeks ago, initial story broke in may. you guys should really just give up.
December 27th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
You could stop being such a little shit. If you check “Ivygate” as your source of up-to-date information and news, your stupidity is one to be feared. It just allows for these issues to be reframed & discussed by Ivy students/us.
As far as I’m concerned the little “zomg so old/what about brown” shitheads that new come with every post (i.e. you) are far more played out and tiresome than the news themsleves.
December 27th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
You confused them at the top of this story, right? You said the former is the skeez and the latter the professor? It’s the other way around, yes?
December 27th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It’s pretty pathetic that you’re trying to rip on Wesleyan administration for doing their job in a time of trauma at the school. Good to know at least you’re going to hell with Stephen L Morgan too….
oh yea, and why don’t you get you get off your hypocritical ass and GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT IN THE FIRST LINE OF YOUR ARTCILE
douchebags
December 27th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Who let a Wesleyan student in here?
December 28th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Does this guy Alex Klein have a college education? Seems unlikely. What a pretentious, uniformed prick.
December 28th, 2009 at 12:49 am
*uninformed.
December 28th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Wait, didn’t a gruesome murder happen on Yale’s campus this spring and the killer was at-large for several days? Where is Mr. Klein’s post about that botched event? Is it too hard to look in the mirror?
December 28th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Lay off AK. As a Wes grad, while the tone of this post is a bit much, its true that the Wes Administration did screw up with posting of the inaccurate photo of the suspect. This could be understood in the heat of the moment but the failure for the administration now to acknowledge that they made a mistake only makes this more of an issue and raises a level of arrogance that I think AK is appropriate in calling out. Still, Yale is not really a model for this either if you fully understand the history of its administration.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I don’t think our Mr. Klein is at all suggesting that Yale has the better administration; he’s only calling Wesleyan out on a rather grievous snafu. Also, if you’re referring to the murder of Annie Le, that happened in the fall, not the spring…
December 30th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Pretty sure AK wrote a whole paragraph in there about Yale botching the Jovin case… however, even without that disclaimer, it’s perfectly justified to write about Wesleyan handing out pictures of an innocent person, especially one who teaches at the Ivy League, in a case like this. There’s a huge difference between a debacle like THAT and simply conducting an inefficient search for a body, as we saw this fall. The reference to to Annie Le was uncalled for and irrelevant.
December 31st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Stephen P. Morgan was never a student at Wesleyan, as this article implies, and had no connections to the university beyond Johanna. That’s a pretty grievous factual error. It would be great if someone could fix that, because I can assume that no one at Wesleyan wants to be further associated with the asshole. Additionally, you got the names wrong in the first line. The former is the professor and the latter is the suspect. Epic fail.
Wesleyan’s administration did fuck up, but the photo was provided to them by the Middletown police as the suspect, Stephen Morgan. At the time, there were concerns over whether the shooter was still on campus/planning a rampage, so it’s understandable that the photo was circulated. The fact that it remained posted after the error was uncovered and that Wesleyan provided no apology is pretty weak. It would be nice if you distinguished between the administration and the students. The administration fucked up. The students were the first to point out their error.
This article is generally a failure. At least get your facts straight before you rip on an administration’s actions in a time of tragedy.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Wesleyan clashes with the ivy league again, this time with a douchebag Dartmouth alum:
http://thedartmouth.com/2010/01/12/news/kannam