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It is a serious charge, and the University is treating it as such

Mr. Payne’s trial is slated to start Sept. 5. Steven Stauffer, Mr. Payne’s lawyer, said his client will not speak publicly at this time.

“These are serious allegations. I can tell you that he is certainly pleading not guilty, his friends and family are standing behind him. We are just looking forward to the trial date … and challenging the complainant’s allegations in court,” said Mr. Stauffer.

He said his client co-operated with police when they called and he was released from the police station following his arrest.

The complainant alleges that on Dec. 10, 2011, she was on her way home, near Dundas Street and Dovercourt Road, when she spotted a man walking a bike. He waved at her, and she waved back, although she said she did not recognize him at the time.

The woman said she entered her apartment, in a house. The door did not close properly behind her, but she left it because she was expecting her boyfriend shortly, she said. Minutes later, while sitting on her bed, the woman alleges she saw a man standing in the doorway of her room before he jumped on her and assaulted her.

The complainant said she remembered her attacker’s face and believed it was somebody she had seen once at a bar. She also alleged the accused got her phone number from a mutual friend and called and texted to apologize.

“It’s been two years of me being silent and I can’t be silent anymore,” the woman said. “Sharing what has happened is the best way for me to get over this… He shouldn’t be working at the school and he shouldn’t be working with students.”

Mr. Payne’s bio on the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design website says he has been an assistant professor of history and theory at the school. He is also coordinator of the Writing Program and is working on a book that “examines the ways in which ‘construction’ serves as a single term in the modernization of three related disciplines: mathematics, philosophy, and architecture.”

National Post

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