CINCINNATI -- Prosecutor Joe Deters called former University of Cincinnati flute professor Bradley Garner "a pig" for preying on female students. Although Deters admitted prosecutors don't have enough evidence to file criminal charges against Garner at this time, they're not giving up.
"I hate to be blunt about this, but the guy is just a pig," Deters said at a Thursday news conference. "To prey on your students in this fashion is unconscionable."
Deters said he hopes other victims will come forward to help prosecutors send him to jail.
Witnesses complained of sexual harassment by Garner going back 20 years, Deters said after his office reviewed the results of a UC investigation into complaints against Garner. Deters said the investigation covered "seven or eight allegations" from the past 10 years.
Garner left the College Conservatory of Music last year after the UC investigation determined he engaged in "persistent and pervasive harassment" of CCM students.
UC said its investigation documented unwanted sexual advances and inappropriate comments and text messages by interviewing more than a dozen current, former and prospective students. An adjunct professor told investigators that Garner showed him a video he secretly recorded of himself having sex with two students.
Deters said they are still looking into a complaint of activity that took place in South Carolina that could result in criminal charges there.
But Deters also said he's sure Garner had more victims.
"People who do this don't do it a few times, they're doing it all the time," Deters said.
"There were couple of cases where we have not identified people involved, but they were videotaped with him. Hopefully, they'll come forward."
Deters said consensual sex between Garner and his adult students was legal but he condemned Garner for abusing the power he had over them. Deters said an Ohio law that makes it illegal for high school teachers to have sex with any student - adult or minor - doesn't apply to college professors.
"These were not minors that we know of," Deters said of Garner's victims.
I-TEAM: Standing up to sexual harassment: 'Even strong cases are difficult to win'
Deters said UC started looking into Garner because students stopped signing up for his classes "because of his reputation."
Deters said Garner's victims tended to be women "of Asian descent." Deters speculated that Garner found them to be susceptible and thought they wouldn't report him.
READ the news release from Deters' office here or below.
"Quite frankly, I'd like to see him go to jail. But right now we can't do it. We don't have the case," Deters said.
"I've been doing this job for a long time and I know it's not six (victims) or seven or eight - it's a lot of girls," Deters said. "I hope that in the current environment we live in today they will have the courage and strength - and we will provide as much support as we can for them - to come forward and tell us what happened."
In an affidavit, Garner denied the allegations and criticized UC's probe.
"What should have been a simple investigation into false statements by two students instead turned into a wide-ranging, rumor-seeking, undisciplined witch hunt," Garner said. "The allegations lodged against me are false. Unfortunately, the report is filled with salacious rumors and rank hearsay."
