Phillips Exeter Sex Abuse Case: Cops Sought To Arrest 2 Deans

EXETER, NH — Police recommended two deans from elite prep school Phillips Exeter Academy be arrested for improperly reporting allegations that a male student groped a female classmate, a state police report from November 2016 showed. The report, obtained on Tuesday, showed arrest warrants were prepared for Arthur J. Cosgrove and Melissa D. Mischke. The school is among several in New England that have been the focus of sexual assault allegations.

Cosgrove and Mischke were accused of failing to contact the Department of Health and Human Services after a 17-year-old student alerted them of being attacked in 2015 by 18-year-old Chukwudi Ikpeazu, of Parkland, FL, in a school church basement.

Prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against Ikpeazu in June. Ikpeazu's attorney, Richard Samdperil, said at the time that he maintained his innocence.

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The warrants for the deans on misdemeanor charges of violating state reporting law were given to the Rockingham County attorney's office. The New York Times, which first reported the story, said the deans were not charged.

Rockingham County District Attorney Patricia Conway did not return a call seeking comment. Neither the deans nor a school spokeswoman returned emails seeking comment.

It's unclear why the deans were not charged, but the school reached an agreement with police in Septembersaying suspected acts of sexual abuse involving children will be reported to police and to the state Division of Children, Youth and Families.

The response of the two deans is likely to embolden critics who have long accused the school of mishandling abuse cases. In this case, the school came under fire after the campus minister, the Rev. Robert Thompson, urged the 17-year-old to reconcile with Ikpeazu and asked him to do "penance" by taking her weekly batches of his bread, which he baked and sold on campus.

Michael Whitfield Jones, an alumnus from New York who has raised awareness about the school's handling of sexual-abuse cases, said the two deans should "be removed."

Concerns about sex abuse at Exeter were first raised following revelations in March 2016 about former teacher Rick Schubart, who was forced to resign in 2011 after admitting sexual misconduct dating to the 1970s. Then, in April, another teacher was fired amid allegations he had sexual encounters with a student decades ago.

Soon after, a former admissions officer turned himself in to police over allegations he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old who was visiting the school in 1973. In May, Arthur Peekel pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the case and registered as a sex offender.

Those cases prompted the school to launch its own investigation, leading to a report in which it identified five more former staff members accused of abuse.

A law firm commissioned by Phillips Exeter identified four teachers and a psychologist accused of sexually inappropriate behavior involving eight students from 1966 to the 1980s.

Three of the accused have died. The other two were barred from campus.

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press

Photo credit: Jim Cole/Associated Press