By Jessica Dye
NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A former dean of St. John's
University on trial on charges she forced students to perform
menial labor to keep their scholarships was found dead on
Tuesday in an apparent suicide.
Cecilia Chang, 59, was found in her Queens, New York, home
by police, her attorney Joel Cohen told U.S. District Judge
Sterling Johnson in Brooklyn. The cause of death was still being
determined, but it appeared she killed herself, Cohen said.
She faced up to 20 years in prison on the forced labor
charge.
Chang's death came day after she took the stand to defend
herself against claims that from at least 2007 until 2010 she
threatened to withhold scholarship funds unless students made
her food, cleaned her house and performed other chores. Chang
also was charged with bribery and filing false tax returns.
The trial, which began on Oct. 9, was scheduled to continue
Tuesday, but Johnson sent jurors home after receiving word that
Chang's body had been identified by one of her tenants.
On Monday, during testimony that at times elicited shock and
laughter from observers, Chang admitted she had charged personal
items to the school and asked students to wash her clothes. She
denied she had ever broken the law.
Chang had been indicted separately in Queens state court for
allegedly embezzling $1 million from the school. A hearing was
scheduled in that case for Nov. 13, her lawyers said.
After receiving word of Chang's death, the judge speculated
she had taken the stand in order to "get it off her chest."
"We never know how an individual will handle the pressure,"
Johnson said, calling her apparent suicide a "Shakespearean
tragedy."
Chang was St. John's dean of Asian studies from 1982 until
2010 and vice president of international relations from 1992
until 2010.
Attorneys for Chang called her a "prolific fund raiser and
tireless advocate for her beloved Asian Studies Program at the
university."
"Her death today is a sad ending to a complex human drama,"
the lawyers said in a statement.
St. John's University said in a statement the school was
saddened to learn of Chang's death and asked the university
community to pray for her and her family.
Prosecutors declined to comment.
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