A lawsuit was filed on Aug. 7 against Sacramento State and recently retired engineering professor Miroslav Markovic on seven different accounts including sexual harassment, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Cici Mattiuzzi, a career counselor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, filed the suit after 18 years of filing complaints about Markovic to Sac State administration and maintaining files of complaints from students and other staff members.
The 200-page court case alleges instances of Markovic making sexual advances towards a student, stalking a student at his home, assaulting a staff member and threatening to shoot an international student and two IT workers.
Also, court documents state three police reports were filed against Markovic with Sac State police.
Mattiuzzi's case does not just deal with police reports. Mattiuzzi and her lawyer said they feel administrators within the College of Engineering and Computer Science ignored multiple complaints.
"The university has known that problems with Markovic have gone on for a long time," said Susan Sheridan, Mattiuzzi's attorney for the case. "They haven't adequately done anything about it and they've retaliated against Cici for bringing the problems to their attention."
Markovic did not respond to requests for a comment and his office on campus was empty last week.
Gloria Moraga, associate vice president of Public Affairs, said the university cannot comment on a pending lawsuit.
She said Sac State will retain legal counsel. It has not been determined at this time if that counsel will also represent Markovic, she said.
No legal representation for Markovic has been cited on any of the court documents.
Emir Macari, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, disagreed.
"I can categorically deny that I ever, not once, said to anybody that they should drop their grievance or lawsuit," Macari said. "And furthermore that I didn't ever discourage anyone from moving forward."
Markovic did not return emails for comment and his office on campus was empty last week.
Mattiuzzi who began her career with Sac State in 1978 in the Career Center, said her persistence and frequency of complaints about Markovic caused administrators to deny her of a promotion during her nearly three decades at Sac State.
"We hired an outside investigator and there was no evidence of unlawful retaliation," said John Kepley, special assistant to Sac State's president.
Problems between Mattiuzzi and Markovic allegedly first began while she was working in the Career Center and Markovic went to her office to ask her to write his resume, Mattiuzzi said. She informed him that she does not write resumes for people, but rather helps them with edits and tips. Hearing this, Mattiuzzi said Markovic stormed out of the office in a fury.
According to court documents, since that occurrence in the early 1980s, incidents with Markovic became more frequent and severe. Mattiuzzi said she has filed many complaints herself and also has helped students and staff with their efforts in pursuing help from administration.
A graduate from the electrical engineering program, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of damages to his career, is mentioned often in Mattiuzzi's case because of his alleged problems with Markovic in the early 1990s.
"My experience with Markovic was intensely disturbing and traumatic," he said. "He acted with deliberate and malevolent intent, and the university had sufficient evidence and good reason to remove him from campus."
When in his early 20s, the student started the electrical engineering program at Sac State in 1991, and took one of Markovic's courses in his second semester. Shortly after the start of the semester, Markovic offered to pay this student to help him grade papers.
Eventually a strong professional and personal relationship developed. After grading his papers, Markovic would have the student drop off the graded work at his home, where the two would often share dinner and wine.
The student said Markovic invited him to go on trips with him. They once traveled together on a personal vacation to Monterey Bay, Calif.
The former student also said Markovic made a direct sexual advance toward him. He says after denying him repeatedly, Markovic began stalking the student at his home and wrote threatening and inappropriate letters to the student's friends.
One such letter obtained by The State Hornet said, "I love him, and I do not know why he does not return my love. I helped him so much and he just ignores me … I must get back at him."
Mattiuzzi said she was contacted by a company in Nevada that claimed Markovic had called its office 12 to 15 times and visited the company twice, urging them not to hire the particular student because he said the student cheated in class and would not be a good hire.
The student received copies of letters that were sent by the dean to Markovic, and was under the impression that everything would be taken care of. He said, "The university convinced me that whatever legal action was necessary would be taken."
Students and staff filed complaints against the professor multiple times. The court case contains nearly 150 pages and seven years of documented complaints and letters about problems with Markovic.
Markovic told The Sacramento Bee he planned to retire on Aug. 21 because of recent budget cuts and required furlough days. He was signed up to teach a full schedule of courses this semester and was among the list of professors expecting to receive grant money from the stimulus.
Kepley confirmed Markovic's retirement and said his classes would continue just taught by another professor.
After seeing Markovic on campus on Aug. 26, Mattiuzzi took sick leave and is not sure when she will return.
Neither Sac State nor Markovic have sent formal responses to the suit at the time of publication. Both parties have until later next week to submit a written response or request an extension. Brittany Bottini and Natalie Flynn can be reached at bbottini@statehornet.com. and nflynn@statehornet.com.
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