Friday, October 12, 2007

Cops: Columbia Turns Over Security Tapes - washingtonpost.com


Cops: Columbia Turns Over Security Tapes - washingtonpost.com: NEW YORK -- The graduate school where a noose was found on the door of a black professor agreed Thursday to turn over security videotape after withholding it while police sought a subpoena to acquire the evidence.

Police claim that Teachers College _ Columbia University's graduate school of education _ had agreed to give up the tape without a court order Wednesday. New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said police officials were 'disappointed and surprised' by the delay in a case that rocked the Ivy League campus.

Teachers College spokeswoman Diane Dobry said the school wanted to work in "the spirit of cooperation" with police, but privacy laws required it to demand a court order. Since a subpoena was obtained, "We are giving them everything," she said.

Investigators plan to review several hours of tape from up to seven digital security cameras in and around the building where the noose was discovered early Tuesday morning on the doorknob of the office of Madonna Constantine, Browne said.