UCSF professor faces sex harassment lawsuit

A researcher is suing Stanton Glantz, a prominent UCSF professor and anti-tobacco crusader, accusing him of sexual harassing her when she worked for him.

Eunice Neeley, a postdoctoral researcher for Glantz from 2015 to June 2017, said the professor “repeatedly stared at her body and chest, leered at her, forced her to hug him on several occasions and made sexually charged remarks,” according to the suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court Wednesday.

Neeley reported the harassment to the university, but no immediate action was taken to protect her and other female

subordinates from “misogynistic and racially insensitive behavior,” according to the suit. Neeley, who is African American, says the university and Glantz, who is white, retaliated against her for reporting the behavior, and removed authorship credit for a paper she researched and wrote.

Neeley is seeking emotional distress damages but has not requested a specific amount, said Kelly Armstrong, her attorney.

Glantz, director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, denied the charges. On Thursday,

he posted a statement on the center’s website denying “every claim reported to be included in this lawsuit.” The same allegations were made to the University of California in March, and the university has yet to complete its investigation into the matter, he wrote.

Glantz said he has been cooperating with the investigation and has provided documentation that he says will show the allegations are not supported.

The suit was first reported by Buzzfeed.

It is not the first time the UC system has come under scrutiny for the way it handles sexual harassment allegations. From 2013 to 2016, the university fired less than half of the 57 employees who sexually assaulted or inappropriately touched students, colleagues or patients, The Chronicle reported in March. In April, the UC regents agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a lawsuit saying former Berkeley Law School Dean Sujit Choudhry inappropriately touched and kissed a former assistant.