Photographer and Also Professor of Photography in Columbia Accused of Sexual Assault

In news that’s all but no longer surprising, another photographer of note has been convicted of sexual misconduct by various ladies.

As well as a working photographer, Thomas Roma has also served as a professor and director of the photography program at Columbia University,  where his accusers are previous students. He has given TED talksabout According to the New York Times, a total of five women have now gone on record to assert that over a decade past, although they were young students, Roma abused his position of power at the university to make sexual advances. The accusations range from sexual harassment through to oral rape, with the statements claiming the situation began with a promise of mentorship from Roma.

One of those called in the account is Mozhan Marno. Now an actress, with roles in the likes of “House of Cards” and “The Blacklist,” Marno provided intimate details of the meeting, where she asserts the sexual encounter between she and Roma was pioneered completely by he. She states she wrote to Columbia in January 2000, however the respective panel reviewing the case concluded they were equally complicit in the episode.

Roma has hired a Attorney, who said and denies all of the offenses:

The statements they’re making about his claimed misconduct are replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods. All four have taken isolated, innocent episodes, none of them predatory, and also have created fictitious versions of reality that are libelous and at the current political climate made to harm his career and his private life. Professor Roma’s sympathies then and currently lie with people who’ve been abused in any way and he completely fails to understand why these women have selected to create those complaints two decades after the alleged truth allegedly occurred.

Significantly, less than 24 hours after the New York Times report, ” Roma has taken voluntary retirement from his positions at Columbia, with immediate impact.

Lead image credit: Pixabay via Pexels, used under Creative Commons.

[via The New York Times]

source http://www.visagesphotography.co.uk/photographer-and-also-professor-of-photography-in-columbia-accused-of-sexual-assault/