The former Columbia professor who made national headlines after a noose was found in her office is now suing the school for a hefty chunk of Ivy League change.
Madonna Constantine was fired after a plagiarism scandal in 2008. She claims the going rate for an "academic lynching" is $200 million, adding that her removal was born out of "academic rivalry and political intrigue," according to court papers filed in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The 92-page complaint alleges "cover ups, evidence destruction and conspiratorial 'schemes,'" the New York Post reported Wednesday.
"It was a prosecution, it wasn't an investigation," Constantine's attorney, Paul Giacomo Jr., told the Post. "They basically set her up."
The claim, which will be reviewed Thursday, also describes a "complex and calculated scheme to use false information to discredit" Constantine, according to the documents cited by the Post.
Columbia accused Constantine of using the work of a former professor and two former students in a memo released to the faculty at the time of her dismissal. Constantine immediately rebuffed the universities account and wondered publicly if race was a factor in her removal.
Constantine taught clinical psychology at the school's Teachers College, a representative of which said the suit is "totally without merit, and we intend to defend against it vigorously," the Post reported.
An investigation of the 2007 noose incident by the FBI and Department of Justice failed to identify any suspects and the case remains unsolved.
