Oct. 2, 2015
Rutgers Professor Found Guilty of Sexually Assaulting Disabled Man
Newark – Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced today that an Essex County jury has convicted Anna Stubblefield, the former head of the Philosophy Department at Rutgers-Newark, of two counts of first degree sexual assault for raping a disabled man.
The jury found Stubblefield, 45, of West Orange guilty of sexually assaulting the victim, who is unable to speak and wears a diaper, following a five-week trial before the Honorable Siobhan A. Teare, Judge of the Superior Court.
The sexual assaults occurred on two occasions in the Spring of 2011 at Stubblefield’s campus office, where she took the victim claiming to help him communication.
“This was a truly tragic case of a professor, the chair of the Philosophy Department, using her position to take advantage of a severely disabled person to advance her own career and to satisfy her own sexual desires. She raped a defenseless man,’’ said Assistant Prosecutor Eric Plant who tried the case.
“She did this under the guise of the discredited method of facilitated communication who our expert, Dr. James Todd, a psychology professor at Eastern Michigan University, said, was the single most scientifically discredited intervention in all of development disabilities,’’ Assistant Prosecutor Plant said.
Judge Teare immediately revoked Stubblefield’s bail. She is currently being housed in the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 9.
Stubblefield faces a maximum of 40 years in New Jersey State Prison.
