Women say they ran, hid at gym to avoid University of Iowa lecturer

Aimee Breaux | Press Citizen

Show Caption Hide Caption Jeffery Nock banned from University of Iowa recreation centers The ban resulted from a police complaint filed by a University of Iowa student.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a new comment from Nock's lawyer.

Holding her handmade neon pink sign, a woman had a message for potential students and their parents passing by the Tippie College of Business building on a tour in July.

"BEWARE U of I employs a serial sexual harasser!"

The woman, Liana Reimer, was waging a one-woman protest against Jeffrey Nock, a lecturer at the college who was issued both a criminal trespass warning and harassment warning by University of Iowa Police in April.

Police and bystanders accused Nock of taking pictures of women at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center. He was not charged with a crime, but the warnings carry with them a ban from university recreation centers for six months.

A person who violates a harassment warning or a criminal trespass warning could be charged in court.

Nock began teaching at the University of Iowa in 2012 and continues to teach there. Two weeks after being banned from the recreation buildings, Nock was formally offered $20,776 to teach a summer course and lead an accelerator program that helps UI students launch their own businesses. On May 29, Nock's contract was renewed for another three years, with his salary based on annual reviews.

According to university officials, Nock is still employed by UI, but is not currently scheduled to teach courses this fall.

The offer sparked Reimer's short stint of protesting on campus. She also quickly came across other gym-goers who accused Nock of inappropriate behavior.

Nock did not respond to requests for comment.

Nock's lawyer, Leon Spies, has asked that the Press-Citizen refrain from writing about his client's employment status and criticized the Press-Citizen's "editorial judgment and professional responsibility."

In a statement sent to the Press-Citizen Tuesday, he said his client cooperated fully with the UI investigation.

"He steadfastly denies that he has intentionally engaged in any unwelcome behavior, let alone the harassment alleged in the Press-Citizen," Spies said. "Anyone with legitimate complaints about his interactions with others have constructive avenues for voicing those complaints. Social media shaming and picketing should be seen for what they are: thoughtless harassment damaging not just to Mr. Nock and his family but to the entire community as well."

In a letter previously submitted to the editor of the Press-Citizen, the attorney criticized the publication's reporting.

"Based on a 'heavily redacted' report from the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety of an 'inactive investigation' that resulted in no criminal charges, the Iowa City Press-Citizen has exposed a respected University of Iowa faculty member, Jeffrey Nock, to unjust personal embarrassment, unwelcome publicity, and professional injury," Spies said in the letter.

Two university investigations

A witness to the April incident told Reimer about it in early May. Reimer remembered Nock as the man who would frequently tap her on the shoulder at the gym to try to get her attention while she worked out.

When the university Office of Equal Opportunity & Diversity opened its own investigation, Reimer told the compliance coordinator that Nock would run on the track, holding his phone out in front of him at an angle that would allow him to take pictures of nearby people, according to a university summary of the interview.

At least three other women were interviewed as part of the investigation, including a 19-year-old freshman Nock reportedly asked out for drinks, claiming that he would be able to help her pursue her research opportunities.

Those interviewed were told that the investigation has been closed. University officials declined to state whether there was an investigation and whether it was closed, saying legal restrictions prevented them from doing so. But officials did say that Nock is still employed at UI and that on Oct. 25, Nock will be allowed back at the recreation center.

The initial report

Police issued the warning following a complaint from Kelsey Peters, a 22-year-old senior at the time who said she noticed Nock taking photos of other women at the gym. Peters provided the Press-Citizen with a written witness statement she provided to the University of Iowa Police Department. She also sent the Press-Citizen the summary of her interview with a UI compliance coordinator that the university provided her upon request.

In her police statement she describes confronting Nock before she stormed off, head shaking, to tell gym staff. She'd brought it up to the front desk on her way out of the building.

Earlier that day, around 11 a.m., she noticed Nock at the leg extension machine. She said she remembered him because he'd worked out on machines next to her before, and she did not like how frequently he would talk to her.

“When I first saw him, I thought, 'I really hope he doesn’t keep working out next to me,'” she said in an interview with the Press-Citizen.

In the subsequent police report, she said she saw him point his phone at her as if taking a picture, but since she was unsure if that's what he was doing, she kept exercising. When she moved to the third floor to do a different exercise, she told police, she kept an eye on him. This time she was confident she saw him taking pictures of other women.

"I saw him turn to take a picture of a girl on the left of him," she wrote in her statement. "He proceeded to do a shoulder press exercise and then took a picture of a girl on his right as I was walking over to the water fountain closer to him."

Describing herself as "a bit fired up" in the police report, Peters said she yanked the headphones out of Nock's ears to confront him. He told her that he was taking Snapchat selfies, though when two men behind Nock said they too saw him taking photos, Peters said Nock's story changed.

Nock said "OK, I'll stop," according to the witness statement.

Peters left for the locker rooms. On her way out she reported the incident to the woman at the front desk, who called the police. Some time later, she told her roommate, Madison Pecaitis, who instantly recognized the name Nock.

'Remember the professor who asked me out for drinks?'

"You're kidding me," the 19-year-old roommate recalled saying to Peters at the time. "Remember the professor who asked me out for drinks? That's the same one."

Pecaitis, a student, was also interviewed by a university compliance officer. She provided the summary of her interview and showed the Press-Citizen text messages on her phone from the number she said Nock used to text her. (The number sent the Press-Citizen to a voicemail for "Jeff.")

Pecaitis first met Nock in the steam room of the recreation center in April of 2017. He introduced himself and talked about his job at UI. Pecaitis said he said hello a few times after that.

The first time she felt uncomfortable came in June that year. According to her interview summary, she said Nock approached her while she was weightlifting and suggested that she consider entering body competitions. She said the remark made her uncomfortable, and she changed the subject by asking about his entrepreneurial work and tips for getting research positions. According to the interview summary, she said Nock told her to email researchers and show an interest in their subject area.

He gave her his phone number in case she needed any help, according to the interview summary. They exchanged texts with their names. According to the interview summary, five days later, Nock came up to her in the gym again and offered to help her study if she took any business classes with him. Pecaitis said this is when the conversation pivoted.

She told the compliance coordinator that Nock asked her to get drinks with him sometime. Pecaitis said she said "OK" at the time out of surprise. She told the Press-Citizen she had established her age and class status with Nock previously.

She ignored two of Nock's texts that evening. When he texted her "You OK?" she responded two hours later by saying she wanted to keep their interactions professional. Nock replied that he extended the invitation to her as a professional networking opportunity.

"Did you think I was trying to date you???" he texted five hours later. Then, 40 minutes after not receiving a response, he texted, "Geez. I am just a friendly person who likes to help people."

"I said no thank you please accept it. Sorry for the confusion," she responded.

Pecaitis said she didn't text Nock back after that, though her friends did take her phone and as a prank text Nock "I might be interested," to which Nock responded "did you mean it?"

Pecaitis said she didn't respond back. She told the Press-Citizen that she took issue with the last line in the interview summary, which states that Nock did not interact with her after the text exchange. She provided the Press-Citizen with corrections to the statement she submitted to the compliance coordinator.

In the corrections she said she ran into Nock at Micky's Irish Pub during the day in August and he was with a woman about her age.

"He made sure to say hi to me until I said hi back," she wrote. "It was a very uncomfortable setting."

Pecaitis worked in the Power Café at the front of the recreation center. She told the Press-Citizen she used to retreat to the back room when she saw Nock, though she recalled in a separate occasion in the email to the coordinator that Nock "made sure he made eye contact with me and said 'Hi Maddi.'"

"I have seen ... him lurking around the platform weightlifting area on the 1st floor of the CRWC," she said in the email, "but I have never seen him pick up a weight ever."

'But he was persistent'

A fourth woman, a friend of Reimer, told the Press-Citizen that she too had an encounter with Nock. The woman asked that her name not be used. Her husband confirmed that he remembered her telling him about the incident, because she stopped going to the gym in the mornings as a result.

READ: UI lecturer banned from rec center after he was accused of taking pictures of women

The woman is not a student, but was interviewed by university officials. She shared with the Press-Citizen the summary from her interview with the compliance coordinator. According to the summary, the woman told the compliance coordinator that she was running on the third floor of the gym sometime in late 2014 or early 2015 when she noticed Nock running beside her, waving his hands to get her attention.

"[She] states that she ignored him at first, but he was persistent," the summary states. "She finally stopped, took her headphones out, glared at Mr. Nock and asked him what he wanted."

According to the summary, Nock told her that she was doing a good job running and complimented her looks. The woman said that based on his demeanor, he was inappropriately commenting on her body. She said she told him off, using an expletive, then left the track area.

The woman said she told the compliance coordinator that she felt afraid when, upon preparing to leave, she saw Nock standing in the bathroom area near the exit of the gym.

She said neither of them spoke, but his presence felt threatening, and she said she ran to her car.

A one-woman protest

The woman recounted her experience running away from Nock at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City in late June. Reimer spearheaded the small gathering of mostly women to help brainstorm ways to protest Nock's employment.

Fewer than 10 attended the meeting. The majority had never met Nock but were generally skeptical of how UI handles sexual harassment.

They discussed ideas such as handing out fliers at the door of Nock's class or mimicking protesters who camped out in University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld's office earlier in the year.

A week later, though, only Reimer stood outside of the Tippie College of Business, holding the sign she made an hour before.

For a few days, Reimer silently positioned herself outside the Tippie building in a way that made it difficult for tour guides to tactfully avoid her.

She said she's outraged that the university will continue to employ Nock, but she was also partially motivated by a sense of guilt. When Reimer learned Nock was bothering other women, her first thought was, "Maybe he wouldn't have done it if I complained about him."

"I don't want the university to pass him on to the next institution where he can do this," she said. "I want women to be aware."

Mostly, she said while holding the sign in July, she was keeping in mind current students and her own daughter, who might one day go to UI. After she finished explaining Nock's employment history to a passerby in June, she posed a question.

"What are they going to do if somebody does something like that to them?" she asked.

Ways you can report harassment to Office of the Sexual Misconduct Response Coordinator

In person at the office, 450 Van Allen Hall

Email osmrc@uiowa.edu

Call the office phone line, 319-335-6200

Report a problem online at osmrc.uiowa.edu/report-problem-0

Reporter Aimee Breaux covers education for the Press-Citizen. Reach her at abreaux@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5414, and follow her on Twitter @aimee_breaux.