Ex-college president accuses board chairman of sexual harassment of his wife

The former president of Seton Hall University in New Jersey sued the school on Monday, accusing its former president of intimidating him and sexually harassing his wife.

In the lawsuit, former president Joseph R. Nyre accused former chairman of the university's Board of Regents, Kevin H. Marino, of a campaign of intimidation. The lawsuit stated that the university administration responded to his complaints with “gaslighting” and retaliation, ultimately causing his employment to “come to a standstill.”

As a result, Mr. Nyre said, he resigned last summer after four years in the position.

He was joined in the lawsuit by his wife, Kelli L. Nyre, who accused Mr. Marino of forcible kissing and touching and who said the university did not act on their complaints about the harassment.

The lawsuit said Seton Hall labeled Mr. Nyre “a dissident employee whose employment should be terminated.”

Laurie A. Pine, a spokeswoman for Seton Hall, denied the Nyres' allegations on Wednesday.

“The claims in this filing are completely without merit and we intend to vigorously contest them,” she said in a statement.

A lawyer for Mr. Marino, Christopher Porrino, said in a statement that his client “categorically denies the false and defamatory allegations against him,” adding that “he will seek full legal redress against the Nyres in the appropriate forum after their frivolous and outrageous lawsuit has been dismissed.”

Mr. Marino is not a named party in the lawsuit. R. Armen McOmber, a lawyer for the Nyres, said they did not sue Mr. Marino because their “problem has to do with the university and how they acted, and not with the root of the problem.”

“If the university had acted correctly there would not have been a problem,” Mr McOmber said. “The university has a responsibility to protect employees, investigate and remediate misconduct, and ensure compliance with its policies.”

In the lawsuit, Mr. Nyre said that Mr. Marino repeatedly tried to abuse his power as board chairman, in one case by trying to hire a friend for a top university position. In another case, he pressured the school to admit unqualified students, including the child of a former board member, Robert Brennan, who had resigned after being convicted of a crime, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also said Mr. Marino tried to pressure Mr. Nyre to “secretly” replace a plaque honoring Mr. Brennan on the side of the school's recreation center. The board had removed it from the building after Mr. Brennan's conviction.

The lawsuit alleges that when Mr. Nyre denied Mr. Marino's requests and reported them to university officials, Mr. Marino flew into a months-long rage. Mr. Nyre said Mr. Marino had made retaliation claims against him, publicly berated him and called him “at all hours of the day” to “ominously threaten” him.

Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges that the university “failed to meet its obligation to conduct a timely and effective investigation” into the complaints, and allowed Mr. Marino's retaliatory campaign to continue. The result of that retaliation was the “constructive dismissal” of Mr. Nyre, the lawsuit said.

“At its core, this is about a very principled man and woman who really went out of their way to stand up to a university and to stand up to a system,” Mr McOmber said. “My client will do what he has to do to restore the reputation he had before he was involved with this university.”

There was no public hint of disagreement last summer Mr. Nyre resigned from Seton Hall, a Catholic university in South Orange, NJ, with more than 10,000 students.

At the time, he said he decided to move on at the end of a university strategic planning initiative, which he called “an opportune time for new leadership to help write the next chapter of Seton Hall's remarkable story.”

But his resignation came after a difficult year for Seton Hall, which was rocked by an investigation into financial misconduct at the Newark law school. That investigation revealed that a group of longtime employees had embezzled more than $975,000, leading to the dismissal from the Dean of the Law School, Kathleen Boozang, in November 2022.