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A Penn State professor emeritus who is regarded as an expert on early-childhood education and autism is facing more than 25 charges of child sexual abuse dating to the late 1970s.
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John T. Neisworth, 67, is scheduled to stand trial in Maryland on April 19.
The charges have no connection to Neisworth's work for Penn State. The alleged victim, an Arizona resident, contends that he was repeatedly abused for several years by Neisworth and two other men in and near his then-hometown of Bear, Del., starting when he was 12 years old.
The alleged victim, whose name is being withheld by The Associated Press because of the nature of the charges, said he had suppressed the memories until five years ago.
The other men facing charges are Karl Goeke, 58, of Los Angeles, and David A. Smith, 64, of Pittsburgh. Smith and Neisworth already appeared in court in Cecil County, Md., and were released on unsecured bond and Goeke soon will be extradited to Cecil County, police said.
The alleged victim said that Goeke lived near the his family, and he met Neisworth and Smith through Goeke.
The alleged victim said he contacted authorities in Maryland, where he contends he visited often with Neisworth, because the statute of limitations had expired in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In 2001, he filed a civil suit against Neisworth and Goeke in State Superior Court in Camden County, N.J. That case was settled in 2002, and the alleged victim said he received a cash settlement, but the terms are not public.
Neisworth retired from his full-time professorship in 2002, but he continues to teach a distance-education course, university officials said. Neither Neisworth nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.
Neisworth is the author of at least a dozen books on early-childhood education and autism.
"He has an impeccable record as a scholar, and he's been a fine member of the faculty here," said David H. Monk, dean of the university's College of Education. Penn State is not investigating Neisworth's activities at the university, Monk said.
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Retired CMU prof convicted of attempted homicide.
AP State News
Retired CMU professor convicted of attempted homicide
The Associated Press February 03, 2005
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A retired university professor was convicted for a second time of attempted homicide and aggravated assault for shooting at two police officers, one of whom was hit in the chest but survived due to his bulletproof vest.
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An Allegheny County jury on Wednesday convicted Edward Constant II, of Mount Lebanon, of the May 26, 2002, shooting of Mount Lebanon patrolman Daniel Rieg, who was responding to a neighbor's call reporting a loud argument at the Constants' suburban Pittsburgh home.
Another jury convicted Constant 10 months ago, but he was granted a new trial because of the actions of a court staff member.
Rieg was shot in the chest by a .44-caliber revolver at point-blank range, but survived because of the vest. Constant's lawyer, Paul Boas, has said that his client acknowledged having shot the officer but was innocent of attempted homicide because he didn't intend to kill him.
Rieg said he was happy with the verdict, but hoped he wouldn't have to go through another trial.
Constant said nothing after the verdict was read. Boas and Constant's wife, Susan Constant, declined comment.
Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 22, a court clerk said.
Constant was convicted in April of attempted homicide and aggravated assault and sentenced to 14 1/2 to 29 years in prison. But the sentence and conviction were overturned on appeal when it was discovered that a judge's staffer had answered a juror's question.
When a juror asked the staffer what "criminal intent" meant, the staffer responded that it was a juror's job to decide what Constant was thinking. That exchange led Administrative Judge Donna Jo McDaniel to order a new trial, which began last week.
Constant was an associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University at the time, but has since taken early retirement. He specialized in the relationship between scientific progress and radical technological change and won the Dexter Prize, now known as the Edelstein Prize, for outstanding book on the history of technology in 1980.
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