Columbia Employee: I Stole As Revenge Because My Male Boss Was Hitting On Me

A former Columbia University employee says that he embezzled $180,000 from the school as revenge because administrators did nothing about his complaint that his male supervisor was sexually harassing him. He spent the money on a lavish wedding in the Poconos and luxury spa treatments.

John Bzdil III claims in court papers that the university ignored his complaints about "continuing sexual abuse" by then-financial director Cesar Rodriguez. Bzdil, 34, says the situation led to depression, heavy drinking and post-traumatic stress disorder. "As a result, I tried to 'punish' the university," he wrote in a letter filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court. Bzdil faces a recommended 21 to 27 months behind bars for scamming $180,000 in phony expenses as manager of Columbia's Pediatric Neurosciences Department. Rodriguez, 62, denied molesting Bzdil and accused him of concocting the claim to avoid prison. "When you are desperate, you'll do whatever you have to," Rodriguez said.

NY Daily News has more:

In a letter to Manhattan Federal Judge Sidney Stein, the ex-Eagle Scout and high school football star begs not to be sent away to prison. Columbia was turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the fact that I was being sexually abused by [the boss]," he wrote. "Subconsciously, I was trying to make them pay attention to my situation and protect me from [him]. I felt deep shame for what he was doing to me and my inability to make him stop." Charges against Bzdil's estranged wife, Heather Brooke Rinehart, were dropped by prosecutors after Bzdil claimed she had nothing to do with the purchase of Bliss items like Mammoth Minty Scrub and Lovehandler.

The couple is divorcing.