A professor at Purdue University is facing three criminal allegations related to selling drugs and making inappropriate and illegal propositions to women.
Officers with the Lafayette Police Department arrested Sergey Macheret on Wednesday night after a weeks-long investigation into him. According to the department, officers had received several complaints that a “suspicious male” was approaching women.
In December 2022, Lafayette police got information about a suspicious man, later identified as 65-year-old Sergey Macheret, approaching women. Police said people reported similar incidents over the last two months.https://t.co/gfnzeYh1OJ
— WTHR.com (@WTHRcom) February 3, 2023
The police investigation, which began in December, uncovered Macheret as the suspect, and a plainclothes officer was assigned to get information on him. The information the officer obtained led to a traffic stop close to the intersection of N. 18th Street and Union Street. The 65-year-old was arrested in the traffic stop.
After Macheret’s arrest, he was taken to Tippecanoe County Jail, but he was later released on bail. He faces charges related to making an unlawful proposition, possession of methamphetamine, and dealing methamphetamine.
Further information about the professor’s arrest or the information police have on him has not been released.
The University of Purdue, with whom Macheret has held a career as a professor of aeronautics and astronautical engineering at Purdue since 2014, said he has been placed on leave pending his case.
The school said in a statement to WGN-TV that it would cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation. “Purdue is aware of the arrest and charges. The university will cooperate fully with the investigation,” it stated.
“The employee has been placed on leave pending further updates and legal proceedings and is barred from campus. The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is working to ensure that undergraduate and graduate student needs are met regarding lectures and labs,” the school added.
The school’s promise to assist the Lafayette Police Department with the investigation came with a refusal to comment on a pending legal case.
While head of the Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Bill Crossley reportedly refused to comment on the issue publicly, he urged “any AAE students, staff and faculty who have questions or concerns about this impact of this matter on their academic endeavor” to contact him directly.
Crossley also reportedly provided students and staff with counseling resources.
