WHAT A HEEL: Prof Hired Actors To Testify On His Behalf In Misconduct Hearing
State prosecutors are accusing former University of Buffalo addictions researcher William Fals-Stewart, 48, of larceny, perjury, identity theft, offering a false instrument and falsifying business records for (allegedly) hiring three professional actors to testify on his behalf during a university misconduct hearing into whether he fabricated data in five federally funded studies, reports The Associated Press:
Fals-Stewart told the actors they were being hired for a mock trial training exercise when they were really providing sworn testimony before a school inquiry panel, prosecutors said. The panel was investigating suspicions raised in 2004 that Fals-Stewart inflated the number of research recruits in reports to the National Institutes of Health.
The actors, using scripts written by Fals-Stewart, testified as three people who had worked on his projects at the university's Research Institute on Addictions or who had access to records, prosecutors said in court documents. One of them told investigators he had been paid $200 for his testimony.
Following the hearing, the inquiry panel cited the witness testimony in recommending the investigation into Fals-Stewart be dropped.
Fals-Stewart, claiming the allegations had tarnished his reputation, then demanded $4 million from the state to settle a federal lawsuit, Cuomo's office said.
Fals-Stewart currently works as a research scientist at the University of Rochester.
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