A University of Maryland University College adjunct faculty member was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with disorderly conduct after witnesses alleged he touched himself inappropriately at a public computer in McKeldin Library.
At about 5:30 p.m., a library patron reported to police that a man was looking at “suggestively dressed and suggestively posed” people on one of the first-floor computers at the library, where officers found Frederick Boland, 58, of Olney, standing in front of a computer, police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky said.
Two witnesses told officers Boland was touching his penis through his pants, Limansky said, but police released him without requiring bail on the basis of personal recognizance.
Boland, who also goes by Timothy, teaches computer systems and architecture at UMUC. He said he did not do anything inappropriate.
“Basically, I deny any involvement,” Boland said. “I deny the charges and I’ll be fighting them in court.”
Boland said he was in the area because he teaches a Tuesday class at UMUC — whose campus adjoins this one — and was only doing legitimate work in McKeldin.
“I was making a phone call for a conference and I was working at the computer,” he said. He later elaborated that he was browsing the image-hosting website Photobucket. He declined to describe the pictures he was viewing there, but Limansky said that is not an issue for police.
“We were concerned more with his behavior than what he was looking at,” he said, adding police did not see what Boland was allegedly viewing when they arrived.
In a later interview, Boland said he was surprised when police showed up for him, but then declined to comment further and referred questions to his attorney, Kush Arora.
Arora said he is in the preliminary stages of working on the case. Arora and Boland are scheduled to appear in court Jan. 3.
When called at home, Boland’s wife Cynthia said she had not heard her husband had been arrested and declined to comment upon learning about the charges brought against him.
UMUC spokesman Chip Cassano confirmed Boland has worked as an adjunct at the campus. As of last night, his name remained on the UMUC online faculty listing.
The same library also played host to an incident in 2008 in which a man infamously dubbed the “McKeldin Masturbator” grabbed a student in the stacks before dropping his pants and groping himself.
Eric Bartheld, a McKeldin spokesman, said the library is open to anybody who intends to use its resources appropriately, including people with no university affiliation.
“The libraries attract all kinds of users,” Bartheld said. “We can’t control how they act, only how we can act in response to that act.”
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