After jail release, instructor remains on paid leave

The current economic condition that MSU is in does not justify paying a sex offender who is not contributing anything positive to the MSU community.

As a state institution, MSU cannot legally terminate him or cut his pay at this point. It’s this thing we do in the US called due process. It’s terribly inconvenient; I wish we’d go back to accusations followed immediately by burnings at the stake.

Chances are this guy is guilty. But I would have to agree, simply being arrested for a crime DOES NOT make you guilty.
As far as still receiving pay, its a pretty hairy issue. Expecially with professors at a publicly funded institution.

STILL RECEIVING PAY!? You’ve got to be kidding me. What a joke.

I believe Higuchi’s DNA was found on the girl’s private parts. Whether the sex was consensual or not she is still underage.

It doesn’t seem fair that, if someone looks like they’re over 18 and claims that they’re over 18, a person can still be convicted as a pedophile for having sex with them.

There are a bunch of people on here condemning this guy as if they can read his mind.

I am NOT justifying sex with a minor, but consider this:

He’s Japanese. As an American, I have always had a hard time judging the age/sex of many Asian people. What I mean by that is it’s very hard for me to positively judge whether I am communicating with a senior, freshman, etc, here at school. I don’t know any highschool asian students but suspect that I might have a hard time telling the difference between some 14 year old asians and some 18 year old asians.

What if that was really the case with this guy? Asian women are small. What if he truly believed that she was 18? Who are you to judge what he was thinking?

Again, I’m not condoning what he did, but come on, he sounds like he’s been making a respectable contribution to the university for years and has had zero legal problems, to suddenly condemn him because you THINK he us a pervert is just wrong. Give the guy a chance. That is not right, and is not the way the court system works here.

If he believed she was 18, then he shouldn’t be charged with a sex crime, but the girl SHOULD. She KNEW she was causing him to commit a crime, and she should be held accountable for that. She is not a victim.

So you’re saying that a 35 year old man cannot tell if a 13 year old girl is of age??????????

Age, yes, I am saying that a 35 year old asian man might have trouble telling how old a Caucasian girl is.

I don’t know this guy, and I don’t care. I am just pointing out that a bunch of people are sensationalizing this like this guy was some mincing pervert that was just waiting to molest someone. From what I can tell, he has no history of doing anything like this. This is the same as that case with the kids with the fireworks – People are overreacting. This girl put herself on the internet as a 30 year old woman, and eventually told him that she was 18. How many old guys are there out there, much older than this guy, with girlfriends in their 20’s? Does it bother you that those girls were in diapers long after those guys graduated highschool?

People need to chill. I am sick of idiots sensationalizing things for the news.

too bad if you cannot tell. If you do the crime, you go to jail. Thats it. He should have asked for an ID.

Next time you’re at a house party and some freshman comes up to you i’m sure you’re going to do the same thing right? Or should i tell you tough if it turns out shes 17?

I would normally automatically say he is guilty but given that the girl repeatedly lied about being of legal age and never in any way objected I think this is more of an unfortunate situation all around. Till more facts come out i dont know if he should go to jail or if he’s as much the victim as him reputation is ruined (potentially for something he did unknowingly). We’ll see.

I had a friend who was 20 at the time he had consensual sex with a 15 year old girl he had just met. He claims she told him she was 18. Because it was consensual he only received 1 year in jail. However, he is a sex offender and must register as one.

It is being generally assumed the girl was Caucasian. She could also have been Latino or black. Many Latino and black girls of a very young age look much older than they are.

Biological science has shown that the three major races enter puberty at quite different ages: Black first (by far), Caucasians second, Orientals third. Hispanics and various other subgroups seem to also reach puberty faster. This girl could have been quite mature looking. And she advertised herself as such.

Tough situation.

The Age of legal consent in michigan is 16. If this person is under 16 they are either a genius student at the university and very unlikely to be at the party, or they are much more likely still in high school

Tough break.

Here we go again with diversity BS. Let’s hold the internationals’ hands and tell them don’t worry, you’re in a strange land.

Don’t worry about speaking, writing, and reading in the English language it’s so TOUGH for you in the United States of America that you chose to come here. Don’t worry about respecting our laws you poor immigrant you.

Let’s hold your hand and offer understanding for banging extremely underage girls.

Oh, you poor illegal immigrants, let’s tax all those stupid lazy middle class Americans and give you free hospital visits!

I’m ready to move back to my ancestors’ homeland of Ireland. I see that the potato famine is over, and on this once great continent is a multi-cultural Soviet Union communist nightmare.

Why is everyone taking a play out of the pedophile play book and saying he didn’t know how old the girl was. The man banged a 13 year old girl end of story.

Dear “An Indictment is not a conviction”,

While you are right to remind us all of due process, you are mistaken to assert that the University must wait for a legal outcome in criminal court. If he is not proven guilty, it would not mean he did not do it. What it would mean is that the burden of proof was not met. Since that burden is appropriately high, it is often not met.

All that aside, the only thing that matters is if he violated some terms of employment. Whether or not one breaks the law, violating the terms of one’s contract can be grounds for termination. At the risk of stating the obvious, an employee can be fired for not doing their job, or conduct unbecoming, and everything in between.

Bottom line for the rest of us is that we are not in the loop and have no business passing judgment on the man himself. While we can certainly comment on the alleged conduct, and express concern for the alleged victim, labeling anyone involved serves no meaningful purpose, other than to vent.

Three things:

1. Did you just say “the three major races”?

2. Did you just say “Hispanics and various other subgroups”?

3. Did you REALLY just say ORIENTALS!!????

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The girl posed as an adult looking for sex on an adult online sex finder website. Her computer showed a long history of luring adult men for naughty sex, in this case of clear entrapment. His computer showed that she indicated that she was an adult desiring sex. This is 2009, and 13 year olds on the web know exactly what they are doing, and she has successfully destroyed a very caring and lonely doctor. Any computer forensic scientist will proved that this doctor was duped!
caringhis

I actually know this guy & he’s nice. Innocent until proven guilty. Period. It’s one word against another. As far as kidnapping the girl, she texted someone in the car when he was driving. I believe she texted a neighbor “what’s up?” or “How are you?” If she was in trouble wouldn’t she have texted “HELP ME”?????? Also, she told her parents about the incident right after they announced they were getting a divorce. Perhaps they did not have intercourse & she embellished this to take the attention off her parents & the divorce and instead focused their attention on her situation. Who knows? Bottom line I know him & I know people that know him. This is out of character for him & what a shock.
Rhiannon, Ph.D. Psychology

MSU is broke? They have 460,000 alumni worldwide!!!!! Aren’t the rich Boomers donating? Hello???? With notable alumi such as Eavin Magic Johnson, Sam Rami, James Caan (Vegas), Geoffry Fieger and Kirk Gibson…..you mean to tell me they are not donating? They have hiked up tuition in the last 15 years. I find it hard to believe they’re broke. By the way, the work those residents do & you guys are complaining about the measley wages they are getting. There are secretaries there that make more than the residents & the employees get free or half off tuition.

The guy should be suspend with his pay put in escrow until final determination of the case. Period!

Next time he should ask to see the young ladies passport. But then many of them have fake IDs which show them to over 21!! to get into the many bars in Lansing, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, … In Europe they do not need to, since the age to drink and probably have sex is 15!! or so. Only in the USA is the drinking age 21, and the driving age 16, and sexual maturity age 18. Use to be 15 in the South, and also marrying age, but I think that has now changed also. Probably 18 or so. The number of high school seniors who COULD be also labelled as sexual predators and sex offenders by having sex with freshman, sophomore, juniors and even seniors is probably over 25 percent!! Amazing how we can have so many sex offender walking the streets. In the, a young 15 year old is now being tried as an adult for drugging her Mum and then allowing her 19 year old boyfriend to KILL HER MUM, since her Mum had brought statutory rape charges against the 19 year senior? boyfriend, after reading her daughter’s diary. So all you boys who sex with your underage girlfriends: do you all consider yourself sex offenders, sexual perverts and do you feel you should have your names on the sexual offenders list the rest of your lives? If not, better go after the college coeds over 18, and forget the jail (sexual offender) bait girls and boys. The USA is getting tough on ALL boys and girls who have sex with underage boys and girls. You are a sexual offender if you do!!