University Whistle Blowers
What happened to Dr. Andrei Borisov that resulted in him
being beaten up by the Campus Police, falsely arrested for trespassing in his
own office and accused of assaulting two police officers?
He was given a no trespass order. He was ordered never to contact anyone from the Medical School for any reason and he could never be rehired by the University of Michigan. None of these orders were lifted even after he was acquitted of all charges by a Washtenaw County jury in April 2009.
The truth is that Dr. Borisov is a whistleblower and this is how the University administration retaliates against whistleblowers.
Dr. Borisov came to the U of M to work with Dr. Bruce Carlson in 1994. He enjoyed a successful and productive collegial relationship with Dr. Carlson until Dr. Carlson retired in 2002. At that time, Dr. Borisov looked to find a new position and a new collaborator.
Dr. Borisov accepted a faculty position as a Research Investigator in the Pediatrics Department. He brought with him a ready made research program, experimental data and an established reputation in the field of muscle cell biology. Dr. Borisov worked with Dr. Mark Russell a tenure track assistant professor, who was struggling to establish a research program and get federal funding so that he could be promoted and get tenure.
Dr. Borisov was the primary author and designer of two grants that were funded by the NIH and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Although Dr. Russell did not have prior expertise in this area of cell biology, he put himself down as the Principle Investigator on these grants. The grant reviewers stated the Dr. Russell had little experience in this field of research and that Dr. Borisov’s participation was the strength of the NIH application and critical to the performance and funding of this research.
Dr. Borisov was promoted to Research Assistant Professor and Dr. Russell was promoted to Associate Professor and received tenure in 2005 based in part on the funding of these two grants. Once Dr. Russell had the security of tenure he took Dr. Borisov off the grants saying that he was spending too much time trying to write his own grants and he pressured Dr. Borisov to give up his faculty position and to accept a demotion to a staff position, as laboratory manager. Dr. Russell also announced to Dr. Borisov that he was taking control and proprietary ownership of all of Dr. Borisov’s experimental data. Taking control of and credit for all of Dr. Borisov’s work was not only unethical and scientific misconduct, but it interfered with Dr. Borisov’s position and career advancement. Without credit for his work, Dr. Borisov would have no opportunity to establish independent funding and/or to be promoted to Research Associate Professor.
Dr. Borisov was courteous but immediately objected to Dr. Russell’s demand for ownership of his work, which amounted to plagiarism. Dr. Russell removed Dr. Borisov as co-PI of the MDA grant retrospectively by claiming that he never had worked on the grant, which was not true. Dr. Russell reduced Dr. Borisov’s effort and pay from the NIH grant from 50% to 10% without getting permission from the NIH, which is a violation of NIH policy and could have resulted in revocation of the grant. Dr. Russell even listed Dr. Borisov as a “key personnel” after Dr. Borisov had left the University. Dr. Borisov believed that all of these actions amounted to misconduct.
Dr. Borisov took his complaints of misconduct to the administration of the Medical School without a successful resolution. He then took his complaint to Judy Nowack from the Office of the Vice President for Research in December 2006 but she would not accept his complaint or his documentation contrary to the Universities policy on scientific misconduct (SPG 303.03). Instead she referred him to the Director of Academic Resources, Jeffrey Frumkin and Assistant General Counsel, Dan Sharphorn, who referred him back to Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Medical School, Dr. Margaret Gyetko.
By April of 2008 Dr. Borisov was advised by colleagues that he should find a job in another department so he applied for and was offered a position as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. What Dr. Borisov did not know was that the Chairman of Pediatrics (Valerie Castle), the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (Margaret Gyetko) and the Director of Academic HR (Jeff Frumkin) were conspiring to take away Dr. Borisov's job at U of M and to prevent him from getting another job at U of M. Furthermore, Valerie Castle, Margaret Gyetko, and Jeff Frumkin were conspiring to prevent Dr. Borisov from pursuing his complaint against Dr. Russell.
First, the administrators tried to sabotage his job offer from Internal Medicine but Internal Medicine did their own evaluation and still wanted Dr. Borisov. They did however; delay the signing of a new contract until September 5, 2008. Then on September 4, 2008, Dr. Gyetko told Dr. Borisov that he should resign his position in Pediatrics in person with Dr. Castle before he signed the new contract with Internal Medicine. This was a trick to get him to resign before he had a new signed contract. A meeting between Dr. Borisov and Dr. Castle was arranged for September 4, 2008 but Dr. Borisov was warned by a colleague that he should bring a tape recorder to the meeting, which he did, so all of the subsequent events were covertly recorded.
When Dr. Borisov arrived at the meeting, he was surprised to be facing two armed University Police Officers. Dr. Castle told him that she had reports that he had threatened Dr. Russell and others, and that the police officers were there to escort him to his office to retrieve his belongings and bar him from campus.
Dr. Borisov asked who had made such allegations.
Dr. Castle said it didn’t matter
Dr. Borisov asked for the allegations in writing.
Dr. Castle said that if she put them in writing then he would be arrested.
Dr. Borisov asked what proof she had that he had threatened anyone.
Dr. Castle said it was not important to have proof, that she had an obligation to assure the safety of Department employees.
Dr. Castle put tremendous pressure on Dr. Borisov to resign. She even lied to him by saying it would do him no harm since he already had a job offer from another department. Dr. Borisov left the meeting without an agreement to resign but the police officers continued to pressure him to resign.
At one point Dr. Borisov told the officers: “No, No, I won’t resign” and a police officer handed him the letter of resignation and said “I am just going to ask you to sign this”
Under extreme pressure from Campus Police, Dr. Borisov eventually gave in and signed a letter of resignation effective September 12, 2008, which would have been when he was expecting to start his new position in Internal Medicine. Despite the date on the letter, the officers insisted that Dr. Borisov was no longer an employee, effective immediately and that he was barred from campus.
The officers escorted Dr. Borisov to his office but instead of being the neutral preservers of the peace, they actively disputed with Dr. Borisov as to whether his briefcase was his personal property. Dr. Borisov tried to show the officers that the briefcase contained only his personal papers, but the officers became frustrated, read Dr. Borisov the trespass statute and then violently pushed him up against a wall and arrested him for trespassing.
Dr. Borisov sustained substantial injuries during the arrest but was not offered medical treatment. When Dr. Borisov went to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital after his release, the doctor said that he needed to report his assault to the police. A campus police officer came to the ER and took a report but the Department of Public Safety never investigated Dr. Borisov’s complaint and never reported it to the DPS Oversight Committee. Instead, this wrongdoing was covered up.
After Dr. Borisov reported his injuries, the police officers added a charge of attempted assault of the police officers and said that Dr. Borisov had assaulted them when he tried to flee with his briefcase. This is absurd on the face of it. By their own admission they arrested him for trespassing. If Dr. Borisov was trying to leave the campus, even if by fleeing, how could he be guilty of trespassing?
Dr. Borisov was acquitted of all criminal charges in April 2009.
(Ex-U of M Research Professor Acquitted on Charges of Resisting Police)
He then pursued a grievance before the Faculty Hearing Committee of the Faculty Senate. The FHC spent months hearing testimony and gathering documents, however, the University Administration refused to cooperate with the hearing by preventing testimony from Dr. Russell, Dr. Castle, Dr. Gyetko, Jeff Frumkin, Judy Nowack and others. Despite this lack of cooperation, the FHC issued a report in February 2010 that supported Dr. Borisov’s allegations. The American Association of University Professors also performed an investigation and issued a report that supported Dr. Borisov.
(Faculty Groups Allege Misconduct by UM Officials in Case of Former Researcher)
(document 1, 2)
The draft report was given to the Provost for her comments. She responded by sending a threatening letter to the Faculty Senate executive committee (document 3).
In April 2010, Dr. Borisov filed a complaint against the police officers and the police department with the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee (document 4). The Committee took testimony and reviewed documents for nearly a year. In March 2011 they issued a report supporting Dr. Borisov’s complaint (document 5).
(DPS Oversight Committee Releases Public Report)
Finally, after more than two years and multiple reports supporting Dr. Borisov, the University of Michigan settled the case for $550,000, lifted the trespass warning, lifted the ban on rehiring of Dr. Borisov and published a public apology. However, none of the people who put Dr. Borisov through hell for more than two years were reprimanded.
(University of Michigan Apologizes, settles lawsuit with dismissed professor for $550,000)
This is a shameful episode in the otherwise great history of the University of Michigan. It would be tragic enough if it were not reflective of a continuing pattern of conspiracy to commit illegal acts and the corruption to cover up unimaginable wrongdoing. Unfortunately, creating false allegations of threats by faculty, students or staff has become a favorite form of retaliation by certain members of the administration and it appears to have the blessing of the General Counsel’s Office.
Issuing trespass warnings to punish and discredit whistleblowers has become common place. News coverage of this issue found that more than 2,000 individuals have been banned from University property for life.
(Ban of Assistant Attorney General from University of Michigans Campus Raises Questions about Trespass Policy)
Prompted by the threat of a lawsuit by the ACLU the University has made some changes to the trespass policy, however, the changes have been cosmetic and does nothing to prevent the University’s continue use of trespass warnings against whistleblowers.
(U of M Taking the Wrong Approach to Revising its Trespass Policy)
State law requires that grievances against police officers should be heard by an elected committee of faculty, staff and students known as the Department of public Safety Oversight Committee (document 6) but at the time of Dr. Borisov’s arrest the committee was in a state of neglect. There had been no elections for the faculty or student representatives for more than 10 years.
(Special Report: The DPS Oversight Committee may be in Violation of State Law)
It took nearly a year of lobbying to force the administration to hold new elections.
(SACUA Approves DPS Oversight Committee Election Process)
(MSA Holds First Election for DPS Oversight Committee in More than a Decade)
The campus police are supposed to be the neutral enforcers of the law and protectors of the rights of all faculty, staff and students of the U of M, but instead they have become the administrations “bouncers”. There needs to be better civilian oversight of the campus police in order to make them responsive to the rights of all members of the University community. The University cannot be allowed to continue to use the police to enforce their personal agendas.
He was given a no trespass order. He was ordered never to contact anyone from the Medical School for any reason and he could never be rehired by the University of Michigan. None of these orders were lifted even after he was acquitted of all charges by a Washtenaw County jury in April 2009.
The truth is that Dr. Borisov is a whistleblower and this is how the University administration retaliates against whistleblowers.
Dr. Borisov came to the U of M to work with Dr. Bruce Carlson in 1994. He enjoyed a successful and productive collegial relationship with Dr. Carlson until Dr. Carlson retired in 2002. At that time, Dr. Borisov looked to find a new position and a new collaborator.
Dr. Borisov accepted a faculty position as a Research Investigator in the Pediatrics Department. He brought with him a ready made research program, experimental data and an established reputation in the field of muscle cell biology. Dr. Borisov worked with Dr. Mark Russell a tenure track assistant professor, who was struggling to establish a research program and get federal funding so that he could be promoted and get tenure.
Dr. Borisov was the primary author and designer of two grants that were funded by the NIH and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Although Dr. Russell did not have prior expertise in this area of cell biology, he put himself down as the Principle Investigator on these grants. The grant reviewers stated the Dr. Russell had little experience in this field of research and that Dr. Borisov’s participation was the strength of the NIH application and critical to the performance and funding of this research.
Dr. Borisov was promoted to Research Assistant Professor and Dr. Russell was promoted to Associate Professor and received tenure in 2005 based in part on the funding of these two grants. Once Dr. Russell had the security of tenure he took Dr. Borisov off the grants saying that he was spending too much time trying to write his own grants and he pressured Dr. Borisov to give up his faculty position and to accept a demotion to a staff position, as laboratory manager. Dr. Russell also announced to Dr. Borisov that he was taking control and proprietary ownership of all of Dr. Borisov’s experimental data. Taking control of and credit for all of Dr. Borisov’s work was not only unethical and scientific misconduct, but it interfered with Dr. Borisov’s position and career advancement. Without credit for his work, Dr. Borisov would have no opportunity to establish independent funding and/or to be promoted to Research Associate Professor.
Dr. Borisov was courteous but immediately objected to Dr. Russell’s demand for ownership of his work, which amounted to plagiarism. Dr. Russell removed Dr. Borisov as co-PI of the MDA grant retrospectively by claiming that he never had worked on the grant, which was not true. Dr. Russell reduced Dr. Borisov’s effort and pay from the NIH grant from 50% to 10% without getting permission from the NIH, which is a violation of NIH policy and could have resulted in revocation of the grant. Dr. Russell even listed Dr. Borisov as a “key personnel” after Dr. Borisov had left the University. Dr. Borisov believed that all of these actions amounted to misconduct.
Dr. Borisov took his complaints of misconduct to the administration of the Medical School without a successful resolution. He then took his complaint to Judy Nowack from the Office of the Vice President for Research in December 2006 but she would not accept his complaint or his documentation contrary to the Universities policy on scientific misconduct (SPG 303.03). Instead she referred him to the Director of Academic Resources, Jeffrey Frumkin and Assistant General Counsel, Dan Sharphorn, who referred him back to Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Medical School, Dr. Margaret Gyetko.
By April of 2008 Dr. Borisov was advised by colleagues that he should find a job in another department so he applied for and was offered a position as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine. What Dr. Borisov did not know was that the Chairman of Pediatrics (Valerie Castle), the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (Margaret Gyetko) and the Director of Academic HR (Jeff Frumkin) were conspiring to take away Dr. Borisov's job at U of M and to prevent him from getting another job at U of M. Furthermore, Valerie Castle, Margaret Gyetko, and Jeff Frumkin were conspiring to prevent Dr. Borisov from pursuing his complaint against Dr. Russell.
First, the administrators tried to sabotage his job offer from Internal Medicine but Internal Medicine did their own evaluation and still wanted Dr. Borisov. They did however; delay the signing of a new contract until September 5, 2008. Then on September 4, 2008, Dr. Gyetko told Dr. Borisov that he should resign his position in Pediatrics in person with Dr. Castle before he signed the new contract with Internal Medicine. This was a trick to get him to resign before he had a new signed contract. A meeting between Dr. Borisov and Dr. Castle was arranged for September 4, 2008 but Dr. Borisov was warned by a colleague that he should bring a tape recorder to the meeting, which he did, so all of the subsequent events were covertly recorded.
When Dr. Borisov arrived at the meeting, he was surprised to be facing two armed University Police Officers. Dr. Castle told him that she had reports that he had threatened Dr. Russell and others, and that the police officers were there to escort him to his office to retrieve his belongings and bar him from campus.
Dr. Borisov asked who had made such allegations.
Dr. Castle said it didn’t matter
Dr. Borisov asked for the allegations in writing.
Dr. Castle said that if she put them in writing then he would be arrested.
Dr. Borisov asked what proof she had that he had threatened anyone.
Dr. Castle said it was not important to have proof, that she had an obligation to assure the safety of Department employees.
Dr. Castle put tremendous pressure on Dr. Borisov to resign. She even lied to him by saying it would do him no harm since he already had a job offer from another department. Dr. Borisov left the meeting without an agreement to resign but the police officers continued to pressure him to resign.
At one point Dr. Borisov told the officers: “No, No, I won’t resign” and a police officer handed him the letter of resignation and said “I am just going to ask you to sign this”
Under extreme pressure from Campus Police, Dr. Borisov eventually gave in and signed a letter of resignation effective September 12, 2008, which would have been when he was expecting to start his new position in Internal Medicine. Despite the date on the letter, the officers insisted that Dr. Borisov was no longer an employee, effective immediately and that he was barred from campus.
The officers escorted Dr. Borisov to his office but instead of being the neutral preservers of the peace, they actively disputed with Dr. Borisov as to whether his briefcase was his personal property. Dr. Borisov tried to show the officers that the briefcase contained only his personal papers, but the officers became frustrated, read Dr. Borisov the trespass statute and then violently pushed him up against a wall and arrested him for trespassing.
Dr. Borisov sustained substantial injuries during the arrest but was not offered medical treatment. When Dr. Borisov went to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital after his release, the doctor said that he needed to report his assault to the police. A campus police officer came to the ER and took a report but the Department of Public Safety never investigated Dr. Borisov’s complaint and never reported it to the DPS Oversight Committee. Instead, this wrongdoing was covered up.
After Dr. Borisov reported his injuries, the police officers added a charge of attempted assault of the police officers and said that Dr. Borisov had assaulted them when he tried to flee with his briefcase. This is absurd on the face of it. By their own admission they arrested him for trespassing. If Dr. Borisov was trying to leave the campus, even if by fleeing, how could he be guilty of trespassing?
Dr. Borisov was acquitted of all criminal charges in April 2009.
(Ex-U of M Research Professor Acquitted on Charges of Resisting Police)
He then pursued a grievance before the Faculty Hearing Committee of the Faculty Senate. The FHC spent months hearing testimony and gathering documents, however, the University Administration refused to cooperate with the hearing by preventing testimony from Dr. Russell, Dr. Castle, Dr. Gyetko, Jeff Frumkin, Judy Nowack and others. Despite this lack of cooperation, the FHC issued a report in February 2010 that supported Dr. Borisov’s allegations. The American Association of University Professors also performed an investigation and issued a report that supported Dr. Borisov.
(Faculty Groups Allege Misconduct by UM Officials in Case of Former Researcher)
(document 1, 2)
The draft report was given to the Provost for her comments. She responded by sending a threatening letter to the Faculty Senate executive committee (document 3).
In April 2010, Dr. Borisov filed a complaint against the police officers and the police department with the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee (document 4). The Committee took testimony and reviewed documents for nearly a year. In March 2011 they issued a report supporting Dr. Borisov’s complaint (document 5).
(DPS Oversight Committee Releases Public Report)
Finally, after more than two years and multiple reports supporting Dr. Borisov, the University of Michigan settled the case for $550,000, lifted the trespass warning, lifted the ban on rehiring of Dr. Borisov and published a public apology. However, none of the people who put Dr. Borisov through hell for more than two years were reprimanded.
(University of Michigan Apologizes, settles lawsuit with dismissed professor for $550,000)
This is a shameful episode in the otherwise great history of the University of Michigan. It would be tragic enough if it were not reflective of a continuing pattern of conspiracy to commit illegal acts and the corruption to cover up unimaginable wrongdoing. Unfortunately, creating false allegations of threats by faculty, students or staff has become a favorite form of retaliation by certain members of the administration and it appears to have the blessing of the General Counsel’s Office.
Issuing trespass warnings to punish and discredit whistleblowers has become common place. News coverage of this issue found that more than 2,000 individuals have been banned from University property for life.
(Ban of Assistant Attorney General from University of Michigans Campus Raises Questions about Trespass Policy)
Prompted by the threat of a lawsuit by the ACLU the University has made some changes to the trespass policy, however, the changes have been cosmetic and does nothing to prevent the University’s continue use of trespass warnings against whistleblowers.
(U of M Taking the Wrong Approach to Revising its Trespass Policy)
State law requires that grievances against police officers should be heard by an elected committee of faculty, staff and students known as the Department of public Safety Oversight Committee (document 6) but at the time of Dr. Borisov’s arrest the committee was in a state of neglect. There had been no elections for the faculty or student representatives for more than 10 years.
(Special Report: The DPS Oversight Committee may be in Violation of State Law)
It took nearly a year of lobbying to force the administration to hold new elections.
(SACUA Approves DPS Oversight Committee Election Process)
(MSA Holds First Election for DPS Oversight Committee in More than a Decade)
The campus police are supposed to be the neutral enforcers of the law and protectors of the rights of all faculty, staff and students of the U of M, but instead they have become the administrations “bouncers”. There needs to be better civilian oversight of the campus police in order to make them responsive to the rights of all members of the University community. The University cannot be allowed to continue to use the police to enforce their personal agendas.