Police Use DNA Test On TC Noose

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force is using DNA fingerprinting technology to identify the person who hung the noose on a Teachers College professor’s door, but still have no suspects.

On Wednesday, TC Director of Communications Diane Dobry said she called the president’s office in response to an inquiry about rumors that Suniya Luthar, TC professor of psychology and education and a purported rival of Madonna Constantine, on whose door the noose was hung, committed the hate crime. She said these rumors were unfounded. “No one in the administration imagined that she has any connection with the incident. The detectives investigating this have never suspected any involvement in the incident,” Dobry said.

Later that day, at TC President Susan Fuhrman’s State of the College address, Fuhrman denounced the press for implicating Luthar.

“On the most personal level, the hanging of the noose targeted Madonna Constantine, one of our very distinguished African American faculty members,” Fuhrman said. “It also embroiled Suniya Luthar ... she herself became the target of an awful and vicious press campaign.”

As the press descended on Columbia last week, the New York Post quoted police sources as saying that Luthar had replaced Constantine when she was on sabbatical, and that Luthar was upset to give up the post when Constantine returned. The Post also reported that Constantine had filed a defamation suit that sought damages “in excess of $100,000” against Luthar.

Paul Browne, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information, also denied last Wednesday that the police suspected Luthar, saying, “that is flatly wrong.” But the Post and other news outlets continued to report on Luthar.

Browne said Thursday that the NYPD is using DNA testing of the noose in efforts to identify the perpetrator but that no leads had surfaced yet. “We haven’t identified a suspect yet,” he said, specifically denying that Luthar was a suspect.

The Hate Crime Task Force is still speaking with all faculty members in the department.
Michael Osgood, supervising investigator for the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, said hate crimes in the city generally occur at random. “There is no pattern. Spatially and temporally, they occur in a random manner.”

Fuhrman said that, despite being certain of Luthar’s innocence, she could not comment about Luthar last week because of legal and privacy concerns. “I regret that in the effort to protect her privacy and under legal advice not to comment about her in any questions about the incident even when specifically asked about her, we didn’t offer her the public support she deserves,” Fuhrman said.

The reporters of this article can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.