Professor accused of assault misses court date

After allegedly assaulting a Columbia employee at a local bar in November, associate professor Lionel McIntyre failed to appear in court on Jan. 11.

According to police reports on the incident, McIntyre—a professor in the urban planning program at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation—punched School of the Arts production manager Camille Davis at Toast, a bar on Broadway near 125th Street. After McIntyre failed to appear in court on his scheduled date, the case was delayed two more weeks.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said on Jan. 12 that the judge had issued a bench warrant for McIntyre’s arrest for his failure to appear. His parole has also been revoked.

The case has been adjourned until Jan. 26, but the warrant means that McIntyre could legally be arrested at any point before then, according to the DA spokesperson. McIntyre had been previously released without bail.

McIntyre allegedly punched Davis at Toast on Nov. 6, 2009, according to police reports, which noted that Davis had “bruising, redness and swelling in the right eye” and suffered “substantial pain.” Davis reported the assault three days later, and McIntyre was arrested and charged with third-degree assault on Nov. 9.

Daniel Morgan, a former regular at Toast who said he knew both McIntyre and Davis, though he was not at the bar during the incident, said the assault was prompted by a dispute that may have been about race.

Morgan criticized the bar for not calling the police. He said that people from the bar, where he is no longer allowed, have faulted him for being vocal about the incident and have said, “Thanks for getting Mac arrested.”

“They’re afraid of losing their jobs,” Morgan said on Monday. “They thought they could contain it by themselves. No one will take any responsibility for these actions.”

The owner of Toast could not be reached for comment, and a manager at the 125th Street location, where the incident took place, declined to comment. Columbia spokesperson Robert Hornsby also declined to comment. Lionel McIntyre and his legal counsel could not be reached for comment.