The sex pest Harvard professor accused of groping women for more than 40 years is hiding out at a waterfront cottage more than 100 miles from the ivied walls of the nation’s premier university, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Professor Jorge Dominguez was tracked to his idyllic getaway in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire — and he sent his wife to the door rather than attempt to answer questions himself.
And when he eventually left the home on picturesque Wakondah Pond in Moultonborough, he pulled a baseball cap low over his face and put on sunglasses to hide himself.
‘I’m going to say he doesn’t wish to speak,’ Dominguez’s wife Mary said at the front door as the professor could be heard furiously chopping vegetables for dinner in the kitchen.
‘No comment is all you are going to get,’ she added. ‘There is still a great deal pending so there is really nothing to comment on.’
The university has been in uproar as demands grow for an external independent inquiry into how Dominguez, 73, got away with his abuse for so long. At least 18 women have come forward to tell how he acted inappropriately since at least 1979.
Former Harvard professor Jorge Dominguez is accused of groping at least 18 women, who claim his alleged inappropriate behavior dates back to at least 1979. An internal committee recommended an independent inquiry, saying his actions were ‘an open secret’, calling Harvard’s inaction ‘deplorable’
Since the uproar, Dominguez, 73, (pictured) has been hiding out at an idyllic getaway in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, DailyMail.com can reveal
And when he eventually left the home on picturesque Wakondah Pond in Moultonborough, he pulled a baseball cap low over his face and put on sunglasses to hide himself. ‘I’m going to say he doesn’t wish to speak,’ Dominguez’s wife Mary said at their front door
An investigation under Title IX — the federal law outlawing sex discrimination in education — found Dominguez ‘engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct toward several individuals, on multiple occasions over a period spanning nearly four decades.’
He has now been banned from all Harvard activities and the university grounds in Cambridge, Massachusetts and stripped of his title of Professor Emeritus.
University Dean Claudine Gay said in a letter to all members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that the action had been taken is ‘vital for the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff.’
But it has not satisfied his alleged victims who insist an independent, external inquiry is still necessary.
‘This was never just about Dominguez, former Harvard assistant professor Terry Karl, one of the leaders of the protests, told DailyMail.com.
‘Instead, it was about Harvard’s inability to address serious and systematic abuse of power, which is what sexual harassment at the workplace is,’ she said.
An internal committee of students, faculty and staff has already recommended the independent inquiry, saying that Dominguez’s actions were ‘an open secret’ on campus. The committee called Harvard’s inaction ‘deplorable’ and ‘a prolonged institutional failure.’
‘This is no Joe Biden,’ Karl told DailyMail.com, referring to the former vice-president’s reputation for being ‘handsy’ with women.
‘Dominguez wants power. He gets himself in positions where he can wield influence over women. The ones he has hurt most are the ones who are most threatening to him.’
Karl, 70, was a new member of faculty at Harvard in 1981. Dominguez was her superior and he soon made her realize who was in charge.
Former Harvard assistant professor Terry Karl (pictured), a victim of Dominguez’s groping, has led the demands for an inquiry. ‘This is no Joe Biden,’ she told DailyMail.com, referring to the former vice-president’s reputation for being ‘handsy’ with women
She knew former Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera through a book she had written. At a Harvard reception, Caldera approached her with a big smile on his face. Karl said Dominguez got between the two and told the president in Spanish: ‘You know Terry. She is my slave.’
She felt humiliated in front of one of her most influential contacts. She drove the professor home that night and when she complained about his comment, he allegedly turned, kissed her, and put his hand up her skirt, telling her he was going to be the next head of department and he would be the one who would decide her future advancement.
He turned to me with this strange look in his eyes and said,’This would be a nice place for a rape.
It wasn’t Karl’s only example. She said: ‘He always touched me. He repeatedly tried to kiss me. All this was found to be true by Harvard. He was found responsible but still they gave him higher positions.’
One night the two were walking back from a meeting on campus. They were discussing a graduate student. ‘I thought highly of her, but he said she was no good and I was wasting my time investing in her,’ Karl said.
Suddenly Dominguez’s mood changed, Karl said. ‘He turned to me with this strange look in his eyes and said ”This would be a nice place for a rape.” It was totally creepy. Any time I exerted my own judgment he threatened me.’
Karl complained to the authorities at Harvard — who offered to provide her with two bodyguards for faculty meetings. They suspended Dominguez briefly but soon brought him back and promoted him. Karl said she took out an injunction against her boss which insisted he should leave any room if she was there.
But she soon realized she could never have a future at Harvard and left to get as far away as she could. She got a job at Stanford, where she is now a professor emeritus and an expert in war crimes.
‘No university can control the activities of every one of its professors,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘It can have policies and procedures but someone is going to do something wrong.’
Karl, 70, (right) was a new member of faculty at Harvard in 1981 (pictured left). Dominguez was her superior and he soon made her realize who was in charge
Karl had got to know former Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera (pictured in 1993) through a book she had written. At a Harvard reception, Caldera approached her with a big smile on his face. Dominguez got between the two and told the president in Spanish: ‘You know Terry. She is my slave.’ She felt humiliated in front of one of her most influential contacts
Karl added: ‘But universities are like the Catholic church: they have the aura of goodness about them and they can get by with an awful lot of things that you couldn’t get away with in a business.
‘I don’t know the worst thing that he did. I do know there are some women who have not come forward — I don’t know their names but I know they exist.
‘I also know that some people don’t think it is a big deal when a professor presses his body up to you while he has an erection and he says he can get you tenure if you sleep with him.’
Karl’s story was first told in a detailed article in The Chronicle of Higher Education early last year. Within a week Dominguez retired, but an article describing him as ‘one of the world’s leading experts on Cuba’ is still on the university website.
Dominguez has not spoken about the allegations since the Chronicle article. But he told the paper he was surprised and saddened by the allegations.
‘I try to communicate both respectfully and effectively. I do not go around making sexual advances,’ he said, adding that any touching was ‘at worst inadvertent, certainly not intentional.’
‘Any behavior like that, I would regret it under any circumstances.’
Cleveland lawyer Charna Sherman was one of the Harvard alumni who read the Chronicle piece.
‘I saw Professor Dominguez’s name and my jaw dropped,’ Sherman, 61, told DailyMail.com. She had reported the professor in 1979, two years before Karl’s problems with him started.
Cleveland lawyer Charna Sherman was one of the Harvard alumni who read the Chronicle piece. ‘I saw Professor Dominguez’s name and my jaw dropped,’ Sherman, 61, told DailyMail.com. She had reported the professor in 1979, two years before Karl’s problems with him allegedly started. She claims he kissed her unprompted
‘I considered him a mentor,’ she added. ‘One of the great privileges of going to Harvard is that famous professors offer office time and you can just show up at his office to discuss or debate a subject.
‘I had done this with him in the past and in 1979 we were engaged in some debate and he just got up from his desk, came across the room and kissed me full on the lips.
‘I was stunned. I got up and left. It had been awkward rather than violent but it was clearly inappropriate and had crossed the line.
‘I was crushed. I considered him a valued teacher and the relationship was important to me and it cut off his entire field of study to me because I wasn’t going to go anywhere near him in the future.’
Nienke Grossman, now a law professor at the University of Baltimore, had her run-in with Dominguez nearly 20 years after Sherman and Karl had theirs.
‘I was in the fall of my senior year at college in 1998,’ Grossman, 41, recalled. ‘I had registered to take a graduate seminar with him. I was interested in pursuing a possible PhD in his field. I had missed a few classes because of the Jewish holidays so he scheduled a make-up session with me for a Friday afternoon after his secretary had left.
‘He closed the door, pulled his chair up next to me and asked me questions and engaged me on an intellectual level.’
But then he allegedly started to touch her, first on her back and arm. Eventually he grabbed her thigh. ‘The next thing I knew was finding myself on the other side of the room, kind of confused as to what had occurred,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘I went back to my dorm wondering whether I had been wearing something inappropriate — but I was in a pair of pants and a long-sleeved knit turtle neck!’
Nienke Grossman, now a law professor at the University of Baltimore, said Dominguez allegedly started to touch her, first on her back and arm. Eventually he grabbed her thigh, Grossman said. ‘The next thing I knew was finding myself on the other side of the room, kind of confused as to what had occurred,’ she told DailyMail.com
She spoke to a sexual harassment counselor on campus and her response stunned Grossman. ‘I didn’t mention the professor’s name but explained what had occurred and she said something I will never forget: ‘If you tell me the name of the department, I can tell you the name of the professor.’
‘The implication was that there were multiple professors who were known for this sort of behavior.’
If you tell me the name of the department, I can tell you the name of the professor.
There are other accusations. After a 2006 meeting, Dominguez allegedly asked Suzanna Challen, now the scholarships coordinator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for a hug. She thought it out of place, she told The Chronicle, but she agreed.
All of a sudden she said she found his hands had slipped and he was groping her butt.
Dominguez’s alleged victims are convinced that he is far from the only abuser at Harvard — and that is why they want a full independent inquiry.
‘It has to be thorough, it is not just a single predator, it is a system that allows him to be a predator for four decades and they have to commit in advance that the results should be made public,’ said Sherman, who was in the first merged class at Harvard where women supposedly competed against men on equal terms.
‘This is Harvard — the gold standard. Its coat of arms has the word ”veritas” at its center, so we cannot accept a secret cover up about the truth about something so fundamental.’
Students and faculty have protested to have that inquiry. Dominguez’s own department has also demanded it.
‘Hundreds of students, staff, and junior faculty felt the consequences of this failure. We must analyze what went wrong,’ the internal committee said in a letter to university president Lawrence Bacow.
Bacow is still considering whether to initiate the external inquiry into what the committee said was a ‘male-dominated department.’
Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain did not respond to repeated attempts by DailyMail.com for comment.