Mark Wentzel was flying high in more ways than one in 2005, making multiple trips to Dubai as one of the University of Connecticut's point people on a plan to build a satellite campus in one of the richest countries in the world.

As director of the university's Department of International Services and Programs, Wentzel worked hard to establish a foothold for UConn within the Arab country.

But a year later the Dubai dream was stalling. And back home, his department was in turmoil. One employee, an Afghan man whom Wentzel had helped gain political asylum, filed a complaint in June 2006 with university officials that he was sexually harassed by Wentzel. A few months later, an African American employee filed a federal lawsuit against the school and Wentzel, claiming he discriminated against her.

The employee in the discrimination lawsuit, Herbertia Williams, received about $192,000 in a settlement from the university last year and now works in Virginia.

UConn officials have not detailed the outcome of the Afghan man's complaint.

The story took a more ominous and bizarre turn just this month when the Afghan man, who is now on the state's sex-offender registry himself, filed a federal lawsuit of his own against UConn under the pseudonym of John Doe, alleging that Wentzel sexually abused him for more than two years in his university office. The Courant is not publishing Doe's name because he might have been a potential sexual assault victim.

The lawsuit by Doe is the latest development in a volatile 23-year association between Wentzel and Doe. Characterizations of their alleged "special relationship" have been uncovered in legal documents, and among the allegations are:

• A threat of blackmail.
• A criminal complaint by Wentzel that led to Doe's placement on the state's sex offender registry.
• A claim that Wentzel created a bogus job for Doe.
• A claim that Wentzel repeatedly forced Doe to have sex with him in his locked office.

Neither man works at the university any longer. UConn declined to comment on specifics of the federal lawsuit.

'Special Relationship'

Doe's lawsuit says that the relationship between the two men dates to 1986, when Doe entered the United States for treatment of injuries he suffered received during the Afghan War with the Soviet Union. Wentzel, the suit says, helped Doe find a lawyer to help him win political asylum. Wentzel got Doe a full-time job in his department in 2002 as a program aide and then promoted him to business service supervisor in 2003, giving him a salary increase, according to the lawsuit. At the same time, Doe and Wentzel's family were living in the same duplex in Willimantic, land records show.

It was during this time, Doe's lawsuit alleges, that Wentzel repeatedly sexually assaulted him in Wentzel's office and when the two took a trip together.

In his lawsuit, Doe says Wentzel would ask him to come into his office on the pretext of discussing business and would then close the door and try to kiss and touch him. Wentzel then began forcing Doe to engage in oral and anal sex in the office, two or three times a week for at least two years, the lawsuit alleges.

Doe says in the lawsuit that he did not report Wentzel to law enforcement authorities or UConn officials because he depended on Wentzel for his job and because Wentzel had promised to help him get his family out of Afghanistan and into the United States.

A "special relationship" between Doe and Wentzel was also described in Williams' lawsuit. Her lawsuit claimed Wentzel gave Doe special treatment, including allegedly committing fraud by creating a new position for Doe and bumping his salary up two grades.

"Because of the special relationship, Defendant Wentzel caused the University of Connecticut to waste public funds by paying ... for capabilities that he did not possess,'' Williams said in her lawsuit about Doe's position.

The university eventually rescinded the position, and Doe was making only about $39,000 when he left the school in March 2008.§We haven't said how much he was making before. Can we do something to show that $39K is less than he was making in the job Wentzel created for him? § Doe did eventually file a sexual harassment complaint with the university's Office of Diversity and Equity, in June 2006, according to his lawsuit. Not long afterward, he was in Superior Court in Danielson.§Not sure what for. Later we talk about him going to the court, but isn't that in 2008? I think that saying "not long afterward" might not be accurate then.

Wentzel's Response

In his lawsuit, Doe says that he began resisting Wentzel's sexual advances after Wentzel returned from one of his trips to Dubai. Wentzel suggested he leave the university, the suit alleges.

During this stretch Wentzel got more crushing news: – his dream of a UConn campus in Dubai was dying because of human rights concerns raised by legislators and advocacy groups once the plan became public. In February 2007, UConn officials announced they were backing off on Dubai. Doe says in his lawsuit that his last day of working for Wentzel's office was in May 2006, and that the next month he filed his complaint with the diversity office the next month. After that filing, the suit says, Wentzel tried to blackmail Doe into dropping the harassment complaint by threatening to have Doe charged with "false criminal charges."

Court records show that Wentzel did file a criminal complaint with university police, alleging that Doe had committed a sexual offense against a relative back in 2000.

Doe was arrested on charges of risk of injury to a minor and in January 2008 pleaded no contest. In his lawsuit, Doe says he pleaded no contest only because he could not afford to pay the legal fees to take the case to trial. A Superior Court judge sentenced him to seven years suspendedgave him a seven-year suspended sentence, plus probation. He also had to register as a sex offender with the state police for 10 years and had to enroll in a sex-offender treatment program.

In March of this year, state officials charged Doe with violating his probation because he failed to complete the treatment program. Officials said Doe refused to admit his guilt, a first step in completing treatment. He could face up to seven years in state prison if a judge in Superior Court in Danielson revokes his probation.

Wentzel was suspended by the university as a result of its internal investigation into Doe's complaint, Doe's lawsuit says. He left UConn in July 2008cq, leaving his $71,000 salary behind, and is now running a pizza parlor outside Tampa, Fla. He could not be reached for comment.

Doe left UConn in March 2008 and it is unclear where he works now.

Manchester attorney Barbara Gardner, who filed the federal lawsuit on his behalf, declined to comment.

UConn spokesman Richard Veilleux would not comment on the specifics of the Doe lawsuit but did say the school "took broad, immediate and appropriate action" after Doe's original complaint to the school's Office of Diversity and Equity.

"The appropriateness of our actions were supported by the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity, who dismissed a similar complaint [made by Doe] against the Uuniversity,'' Veilleux said.