University Police arrested a university English lecturer yesterday morning after officers received a tip that there was a warrant out for his arrest on assault charges.
Karl Zuehlke, 29, was arrested outside of the Cambridge Community Center at about 10 a.m. yesterday. University Police received a phone call Tuesday night from a woman — whose name they would not release — that tipped police off to the open warrant. After confirming he was wanted in Baltimore, police handcuffed Zuehlke in front of some of his students before his ENGL101S: Academic Writing class began yesterday.
Zuehlke was charged with second-degree assault in connection with an incident that occurred in Baltimore on March 3. The Baltimore Police Department would not release the details of his charge, but University Police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky said he believes it is connected to a domestic violence incident that occurred in March. A civil domestic violence case against Zuehlke was dismissed in court last month, according to court documents.
“They may be part of the same incident, we don’t know,” Limansky said. “It could be an ongoing thing. Domestic violence issues tend to drag out, and going forward and facing the person again, it can get messy. Being here for 22 years, that’s just my instinct.”
According to court documents, the previous domestic violence case, which appeared to be for a protective order, was dismissed because the petitioner, Dory Hoffman, failed to appear in court.
Although there is an English lecturer by the same name at this university, it is unclear if she is the same Dory Hoffman involved in Zeuhlke’s domestic violence case.
Hoffman is also listed as the complainant in the court documents for the assault charge. English lecturer Hoffman could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Freshman biological sciences major Kevin Sistani witnessed his professor being taken away by two officers yesterday.
“I was walking into class a little early to hand in my essay, and he was walking out of [Cambridge Community Center] with two officers in handcuffs,” he said. “He didn’t seem extremely mad; he seemed like he accepted it.”
Freshman letters and science major Mike Brown was also on his way to hand in his assignment when he heard his professor had been arrested.
“It was crazy to have him be arrested right before class,” Brown said. “He showed up for class but was just arrested instead.”
Brown said he was surprised Zeuhlke was wanted by police.
“He’s a pretty cool professor; he was really passionate about English,” Brown said. “It was really shocking.”
Kevin Cartwright, the chairman of the English department, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
According to charging documents, Zuehlke’s court date has not yet been set.
egan at umdbk dot com
