A panel of Ohio State University faculty members recommended Luke Perez be terminated after he tackled a Columbus filmmaker trying to ask former university president E. Gordon Gee a question earlier this year.
The panel dubbed Perez’s actions as “the most egregious incident of workplace violence they had investigated,” in its findings.
Ohio State’s Office of Human Resources, Employee and Labor Relations published the results of its investigation into allegations of workplace violence by Perez on May 20. The panel, which consisted of three professors and members of the University Sanctioning Committee, “found sufficient evidence that Dr. Perez’s actions constituted workplace violence,” according to the report.
Investigators found that Perez “used physical force, violence, or other actions that have the capacity to inflict harm or to endanger the physical safety of another person,” behavior that “caused a disruption to the work environment, and a reasonable person in that environment would fear for their physical safety.” The report also found that Perez “engaged in physical conduct that resulted in harm” to another person.
The Dispatch reached out to Ohio State and Perez for comment on whether Perez will appeal the recommendations and what his current status is with the university.
Perez, an assistant professor affiliated with Ohio State’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society, was placed on administrative leave in February after a video surfaced of Perez wrestling Michael Newman, a Columbus filmmaker and independent journalist, following his Profiles in American Leadership class. The course includes a series of guest lecturers, and Gee – the two-time former Ohio State president who is currently serving as a consultant for the Chase Center – was speaker for that class session.
Newman and DJ Byrnes, a local political blogger who writes a newsletter called “The Rooster,” waited after the class to ask Gee questions. After their interview, Newman, whom Byrnes noted in his newsletter does not work for him but was with him as “two independent creators working in concert,” wanted to ask Gee a question.
That’s when Perez stepped in front of Newman to block his path. Newman, with a phone in one hand and a video camera in the other, stepped back and did not touch Perez, according to video recorded of the incident. Without warning, Perez swatted at Newman’s phone and tackled him to the ground.
Investigators interviewed seven university-affiliated witnesses including two staff members, three faculty members, one emeritus faculty member and one student. They also reviewed videos and a police report provided by the OSU Police Department. Perez was interviewed as part of the investigation, but he submitted no documentation.
Per faculty rules, the panel considered a number of aggravating factors, including:
The panel also considered aggravating factors in their deliberations, including recognizing that Perez was “under great personal stress at the time of the incident, which may have exacerbated his responses,” that Perez did not have a history of documented prior disciplinary actions and whether Perez’s actions reflected an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior.
Ultimately, investigators determined “that the seriousness of the incident substantially outweighed these potentially mitigating considerations” and recommended Perez be terminated.
Perez was charged with one count of assault, a first-degree misdemeanor, in Franklin County Municipal Court on Feb. 16. First-degree misdemeanors in Ohio are punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State panel says professor who tackled videographer should be fired
Reporting by Sheridan Hendrix, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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