An assistant professor at Brown University has been charged with second-degree sexual assault after he allegedly snuck up behind a student and groped her, NBC News reported Monday. Records show that Mohammad Ibrahim, an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, pleaded not guilty in a Providence, Rhode Island district court Friday morning. The alleged victim, a graduate student who worked at the same campus lab as Ibrahim, told police that he grabbed her breasts twice in the lab. An arrest affidavit said Ibrahim allegedly tried to grab her for a third time, but another graduate student saw her recoil. Ibrahim “just laughed at her and tried to play it off as a joke,” the affidavit said. The student said she hesitated to speak up due to Ibrahim’s position in the lab, saying that he “threatened to get her thrown out of the program if she did not divorce her husband.” Ibrahim has been put on administrative leave by Brown University and was released from jail on a $1000 bond.
