In December 2015, Visiting Scholar in Physics Stephon Alexander PhD’00 was arrested by the Coventry and West Greenwich Police for his involvement in a prostitution sting. Alexander was one of seven men charged with the procurement of sexual conduct for a fee, and his faculty appointment to the University was put under review, The Herald previously reported.
Months later, it appears that all charges against the physics academic have been dropped, and his position at the University is no longer in jeopardy. “Details relating to personnel review are not public, but the University has been informed that the charge in this case has been dismissed. Mr. Alexander’s current status is that he is on leave of absence,” wrote Cass Cliatt, vice president of communications, in an email to The Herald.
Alexander, who was on paid administrative leave from Dartmouth in the fall, was originally set to begin at Brown this January. His involvement in “Operation Front Page” — a sting by the Coventry and West Greenwich police meant to curtail the use of classifieds website Backpage.com as a forum for prostitution — resulted in his arrest for a misdemeanor.
“The arrest record of Stephon Alexander was a court-ordered expungement,” wrote Terri Ryan of the Coventry Police Department in an email to The Herald. “All fingerprints, photographs and all other records have been destroyed in accordance with the provisions of Title 12, Chapter 1, Section 12 of the General Laws of Rhode Island which mandate the records of the case must be destroyed by the authority in charge of said records,” she wrote.
But under closer inspection, the aforementioned section of the Rhode Island General Laws is titled, “Destruction or sealing of records of persons acquitted or otherwise exonerated” and has no relation to expungement.
“A motion to expunge deals with a case where you have been, in some way, held responsible for a criminal charge — you’ve either pled to it or you went to trial and were found guilty,” said Andrew Horwitz, professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law.
While both an expungement and sealing result in the removal of all records relating to the criminal charges from public records and law enforcement agencies, an expungement for a misdemeanor can only take place five years after the successful completion of a sentence.
Conversely, a motion to seal occurs either when charges are dismissed, a person is not found guilty after trial, a grand jury declines to issue an indictment, or the prosecution ultimately decides to forgo prosecution. Records must be destroyed within 60 days of the motion.
All of these scenarios would culminate in “no adverse deposition against the defendant,” Horwitz said. “In other words, charges have been fully and completely dismissed. … As a matter of law, that case no longer exists.” Horwitz added that a sealing of records is not uncommon with respect to misdemeanors.
“What (likely) happened in this particular occasion is that the court file was sealed, given the timing,” Horwitz said. “There’s a difference between expungement and sealing, … (though) people very often get them confused.”
As for whether or not he believes the University should penalize Alexander for the incident, Horwitz said, “unless one could establish some connection between the alleged conduct and somebody’s qualifications to be a faculty member,” retributions are unwarranted. “I personally don’t see any connection whatsoever between (the prostitution case) and somebody’s qualifications to be an effective faculty member.”
Alexander could not be reached for comment.
