The Observer, April 20, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 25
Stats professor suspended pending FBI investigation
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office released a statement implicating Case statistics professor Ramani Sri Pilla in perpetrating a hoax against the university.
According to the release, Pilla told the FBI that she had been a victim of threatening hate mail based on her ethnicity and gender. She claimed to have received four letters between Dec. 19, 2006 and Feb. 28, 2007, and told the FBI that she suspected three of her colleagues of delivering these letters. Pilla told officials that she presumed these letters were sent in retaliation for discrimination complaints she filed with Case and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Pilla later admitted that she wrote and delivered the letters herself, according to court documents.
The accusations led to an investigation conducted by both the FBI and the university. The cost of the investigation for the university was nearly $80,000. If Pilla is convicted, the university hopes to recoup the money spent on investigation.
John Hachtel, Associate Vice President of University Marketing and Communications, issued a statement on Tuesday in response to the scandal.
"The university cooperated with the FBI throughout the investigation. As the matter moves forward, the university will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney's office and other appropriate law enforcement agencies. Dr. Pilla has been placed on interim suspension pending further review by the university," read the statement.
Pilla has taught statistics at Case since 2002. In 2003 she received a five-year grant worth $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the use of statistical clusters in finding cancer cells and land mines.
She will be on interim suspension with full pay until the investigation is complete. A conviction would earn her a maximum of five years in jail.
