Former East Stroudsburg University VP Faces Accusers in Civil Trial

Isaac Sanders, the defendant, was fired from East Stroudsburg University six years ago following an investigation into allegations of sexual improprieties.They came from broken homes to a state university in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains and met the father figure they never had: a school vice president who offered them scholarships or campus jobs as they adjusted to college life. But then came the pressure for sexual favors or, in some cases, sexual assaults, according to a federal civil-rights lawsuit heading to trial this week.

Now in their 20s and early 30s, the men are pursuing the justice they say they’ve so far been denied by law enforcement.

The defendant, Isaac Sanders, was fired from East Stroudsburg University six years ago following an investigation by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, an agency that oversees 14 state-owned universities. He has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying in court papers he’s the victim of “untrue crude and vulgar allegations of sexual assault and perversion” by plaintiffs “motivated by less than honorable intentions.”

Sanders has never been charged with a crime. But an Associated Press review raises questions about the State System’s response to the scandal, the extent to which local law enforcement probed allegations that will now be heard by a civil jury instead of a criminal one, and the lack of involvement by prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Albert R. Murray Jr., a former federal prosecutor, complained as far back as 2009 about a lack of follow-through by the local district attorney, and pressed for a state investigation as recently as this summer into allegations that a Pennsylvania governor once called “criminal” in nature.

The students’ lawsuit said Sanders, who is Black, targeted emotionally fragile young Black men. One student alleged Sanders forced him into oral sex, while other plaintiffs claimed he groped their genitals, engaged in other kinds of unwanted touching, and made inappropriate sexual comments.

Sanders, who served as East Stroudsburg’s vice president of advancement ― its chief fundraiser ― declined comment to The Associated Press last week. His attorney, Harry Coleman, said Sanders is looking forward to getting the case before jurors so they can hear the facts instead of “rumor, gossip, innuendo.” He added that Sanders was never charged with a crime because “there’s nothing there.”