Disgraced NY college dean dead in apparent suicide

[marmar]

NEW YORK — A disgraced dean of St. John's University accused of using students as personal servants was found hanging in her apartment Tuesday, dead of an apparent suicide one day after she testified in her own defense at her criminal trial, a law enforcement official said.

Cecilia Chang's body was discovered hanging from a folding ladder that leads to her attic in her Queens home Tuesday morning, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly because Chang's family had not been notified and thus spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Chang, 59, was the former dean of the Institute of Asian Studies and was charged in 2010 with stealing $1 million from the school and with forced labor. Federal authorities said she forced students to run personal errands for her and do mundane tasks like making meals at a veteran administrator's home or answering her personal emails— or else they would be kicked out of school.

Her federal trial started recently. On Monday, Chang gave rambling, bizarre testimony where she admitted lying to an FBI agent, expensing personal items and using her students. But she denied stealing from the school. ............(more)

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