New Haven police investigating death of Yale professor in lockup Man, 34, had been held after dispute with husband

Samuel See Samuel See Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close New Haven police investigating death of Yale professor in lockup 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >> Police are investigating the death of a Yale English professor who was arrested Saturday and found dead in his cell the next morning at the Union Avenue Detention Facility, police spokesman Officer David Hartman said Wednesday.

Samuel See, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell and later was pronounced dead, Hartman said.

See was an assistant professor of English at Yale University. He was on leave this fall, according to the university’s website.

See was arrested following a domestic dispute with his husband at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, to which police responded after receiving a complaint. Hartman said a caller reached out to the police and said her brother was one of the parties involved and that there was a protective order in place.

New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman said Wednesday he had opened an internal inquiry into See’s death earlier this week.

“I’m getting my first, preliminary report this afternoon at 2:30,” Esserman said. “Whenever there is an untimely death, we initiate our own inquiry.”

Esserman said he would “not be surprised” if the inquiry took several weeks to complete.

Hartman said officers spoke with See’s husband, who said that despite his knowledge of the protective order, he went to the home where See lived to retrieve his belongings and spent about 2½ hours there before police arrived.

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy said the university community was “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Samuel See.”

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Yale said, “Our condolences go out to his family, faculty colleagues and students, and his friends at Yale and elsewhere. We encourage anyone at Yale who needs comfort and support at this time of loss to reach out to friends in the community or to university resources that are available for consultation and counseling.”

Hartman said the protective order was verified and See’s husband was charged with violating it. When officers spoke with See, he told the officers to remove his husband from the home, and when the officers informed him there was a second protective order in which his husband was the party protected from See, he became enraged. See yelled that it was his house and that he shouldn’t be arrested, according to Hartman.

See then fought with the officers when they tried to handcuff him and he was led to a police car yelling to one of the arresting officers, “I will kill you. ... I will destroy you.”

Hartman said officers summoned EMS to evaluate a cut that was above See’s eye and an ambulance responded, which took him to Yale-New Haven Hospital where his injury was treated. See was released to police custody before he was taken to the detention facility.

Hartman said See was charged with violating a protective order, interfering with police and second-degree threatening.

Rhonda Stearley-Herbet, program manager of communications for the state judicial branch, said See was delivered to the detention center at 9:10 p.m. Saturday and was alert and communicating with judicial marshals throughout his detainment. Marshals found See unresponsive in his cell at 6 a.m. Sunday and marshals immediately provided CPR and other lifesaving efforts until relieved by a New Haven fire and rescue crew.

Hartman said that the investigation of See’s death remains under investigation.

The chief state medical examiner’s office said the cause of death is pending further studies.

Yale’s website says See earned his doctorate in English at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2009 and had earned his bachelor’s degree, also in English, from California State University, Bakersfield, in 2001.

The site that contains details about See quotes him as saying: “My research and teaching focus primarily on British and American modernist literature and sexuality studies. I’m currently interested in the questions that aesthetic and sexual feeling present for literary historiography. My first book project explores how British and American modernist writers co-opt the evolutionary precepts of degeneration theory to depict queer feeling as natural: material but nonetheless subject to change. My next book project will examine how British and American writers throughout the twentieth century use aesthetics like the mythical method and magic realism to create queer mythologies that depict the construction of transhistorical and transnational queer communities.”