Former student enters pretrial intervention program after confessing to sexually based crimes against Asian women
By: Rachel Silverman
Michael Lohman a 28-year-old former Princeton University graduate student who admitted committing a slew of sexually based crimes against Asian women entered a pretrial intervention program Wednesday.
At a court hearing, Mr. Lohman who was charged with two counts of recklessly endangering another person, two counts of food tampering, one count of harassment and one count of theft was assigned to a counseling and work program and handed $125 in fines.
If Mr. Lohman does not meet the terms of the three-year program, Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta said the former applied and computational mathematics student could face 18 months in jail for each count against him.
As a condition of entering the pretrial intervention program, Mr. Lohman, who police said had earlier confessed to the charges filed against him, was permitted to plead innocent to the charges. He also waived his right to have his case heard by a grand jury.
According to police, Mr. Lohman placed his semen and urine in roughly 50 women’s drinks in the graduate college dining hall throughout 2002.
Women’s underwear, mittens and other objects were also found in Mr. Lohman’s Princeton Township apartment, police said.
Police first considered Mr. Lohman a suspect in March, when an Asian woman reported that some of her hair was removed while riding a university shuttle bus.
At least eight other women of Asian descent experienced a similar incident on or near the university campus, police said.
Mr. Lohman, who is barred from campus, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Louisiana State University, where he met his wife of four years, who is Asian.