LANSING, Mich. — Jessica Lynn Neuroth was on the stand for more than an hour today.
She testified William Strampel crossed the line both verbally and physically.
But defense lawyers told the jury there's a good reason to question her credibility.
"I was thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening.'"
On June 3rd, 2014, Neuroth was receiving a scholarship to help pay off her loans for medical school.
After the presentation, she stood for a photo-op with the scholarship donor, as well as Strampel.
"I felt Dean Strampel reach around me for my left buttocks and hold it very tightly," Neuroth said.
She met with Strampel another time after she had fallen asleep during a biochemistry exam.
"He motions to a chair, but tells me not to sit yet. Instead he has me turn around twice for him...He goes on to tell me that I need to dress sexier if I wanted to get ahead in the profession, and that I needed to be more submissive," she said.
Neuroth said the same thing happened in a later meeting, after she was involved in an incident during her surgical rotation at Mclaren Greater Lansing. She says the reason she was there was never even brought up in either meeting.
There was a big twist in the cross-examination, though. Neuroth first testified she didn't know how to submit a claim for sexual harassment, but then admitted she had filed one.
"Where did you do your undergraduate studies at?" asked Strampel's attorney John Dakmak.
"MSU," Neuroth replied.
"Isn't it true that you made an allegation of sexual harassment towards one of your professors as an undergraduate student?" Dakmak added.
"I did....I made it in the yearly evaluation of the faculty member," Neuroth said.
Neuroth mentioned talking to Strampel's wife at a luncheon.
The defense asked her why she didn't bring up strampel's behavior at that time.
Neuroth said she didn't think his wife would do anything about it.
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