It's time for another chapter in the sorry tale of Madonna Constantine, the TC psychology professor who found a noose on her door and later found herself the subject of a plagiarism investigation.

Anyway, she's back, and she's suing Columbia for wrongful termination. She had planned to appeal her termination, but that having apparently not turned out in her favor, she's now looking to the State Supreme Court to reverse her firing. She's arguing that her being let-go was "arbitrary, irrational and unauthorized."

Columbia's not commenting.

Good morning, Columbia, hope you're all set for some more Madonna Constantine updates. Oh good, let's get started. First, according to last night's AP report, Constantine has decided to appeal her termination, claiming that she was fired because of the noose incident and that the plagiarism charges are "baseless."

And speaking of nooses, it's finally time for the Village Voice's sequel to its exciting series on "Knotty Noose Problems". When we last left off, a bunch of people accussed Madonna Constantine of plagiarism, so she made one of them organize some stuff in her office over winter break, which was mean. Meanwhile, Darlene Bailey, VP of Academic Affairs at TC, launched counter-investigations against a women who wanted to look into the allegations against Constantine.

So now that we're all caught up, on to this week's article, and we've once again distilled everything you need to know in reader-friendly bulletpoints.

Today, the Village Voice ran the first part of a billion part article that's something like the definitive account of everything that happened surrounding Madonna Constantine. You might recall October's noose-hanging incident and the whole multiple charges of plagiarism thing, for example. Anyway, we've distilled everything that's new and important in the article in easy-to-digest bullet points below (Spoiler Alert: She plagiarized.)

• "As many as 10 people complained about Constantine over several years, and these sources say the college did little to intervene."
• "Constantine attempted to silence her accusers in the spring of 2007 by sending them letters threatening to sue unless they dropped their claims. She used college stationery and the college mailing account."
• "Despite [former student Karen Cort's] accusation [of plagiarism], Constantine never pursued official sanctions. Instead, as punishment, she ordered Cort to cancel plans for the January break and come to her office. Constantine had her mark each book in her office with the professor's stamp. The shelves in the office held hundreds of books. The job took several days to complete."
• This particular plagiarized text was a second-year research paper written by the aforementioned former student, Karen Cort. Constantine told Cort to list Constantine's name as the primary researcher, despite Cort actually writing and researching the paper. For whatever reason, Cort agreed.
  
  (Read more...)

Conn Corrigan, a J-School grad writing for the New York Sun, is reporting that Madonna Constantine, she of noose-hanging incident and now-confirmed plagiarism fame, is being suspended indefinitely from Teachers College after an investigation concluded that despite her claims to the contrary, she did, in fact, plagiarize the works of two former doctoral candidates and a former colleague. Letter sent to TC faculty and obtained by the Sun after the jump.

Relatively unreliable paper The New York Post is reporting that a grand jury has subpoenaed all Columbia's records on Madonna Constantine, citing financial records and personnel records of particular importance.

The investigation into last year's noose-hanging incident has yet to pinpoint any possible suspects, while the plagiarism investigation remains tightly under wraps, with both Constantine's lawyer and the University's PR firm declining to comment.

The Post also refers to sources who explain that the subpoena could signal "that the investigation is broadening to examine possible links between the teacher, her closest friends and the racially charged incident."

Bringing up the rear, the Post puts the word "noose" in scare quotes, although all those photos were enough to convince Bwog that the noose did, at least, physically exist. However, they also took the time to track down one of her alleged victims, Christine Yeh, now teaching at the University of San Francisco since a 2006 departure from Columbia.

According to a TC spokesperson, the details of Professor Constantine's punishment are not public.

Making the rounds on the TC listserv today, an email from Professor Madonna Constantine. In the email, Constantine maintains her innocence and calls the actions of the administration "premature, vindictive, and mean-spirited." She also indicates that she believes her race played a role in the investigation: "I am left to wonder whether a White faculty member would have been treated in such a publicly disrespectful and disparaging manner," she said.

Constantine also criticizes TC for offering those who work speak against her "indemnification." According to the professor, the investigation is nothing more than a "witch-hunt" and TC attempted to blackmail her into resigning. "There have been attempts by the Teachers College administration to intimidate and blackmail me into leaving the College by insisting that I sign a false statement related to the aforementioned investigation," she said.

Full email after the jump.

As the Spectator reported earlier, Teachers' College professor and hate crime victim Madonna Constantine is currently being investigated for fraud and plagiarism. However, it's not publicly known which of her works are coming under scrutiny.

Bwog attempted to contact Joe Levine, the Executive Director of External Affairs at TC for possible information regarding the case. We were informed by a receptionist that Mr. Levine is "out of the office until Monday" and that "he is the only person authorized to comment on such a sensitive issue."

Bwog also placed called to the law firm of Hughes Hubbard and Reed, the firm that conducted the investigation. The attorney we spoke with was unfamiliar with the case against Professor Constantine and was unable to locate a record of it.

We're continuing our research and will be posting any updates.

- JNW