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Friday, July 15, 2005

Just Trying to Help

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:


A criminal justice assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is under investigation on allegations of finagling a scholarship by forging an application for a female student with whom he sought a relationship.

Martin G. Urbina, 33, who this summer taught classes on the correctional and criminal court processes, according to the UWM Web site, was booked into the Milwaukee County Jail Friday as part of the investigation into possible charges of misconduct in office, forgery and misappropriation of personal identifying information, booking records show.

Authorities seized two computers and several documents from Urbina, according to a search warrant. They searched the assistant professor's home, office and Mercedes, the documents filed by an investigator from the state Department of Justice show.

The search warrant affidavit alleges that in June, Urbina sent a text message to a 22-year-old former student to say he was "working on a deal for" her, and on June 15, he told her on the phone that he had "pulled some strings" and had gotten her $6,000 from the Chancellor's Graduate Student Award fund.

She hadn't applied for the fund, she told investigators.

Authorities allege that Urbina told her that he had gotten her personal information from a school file, put it on an application on her behalf, and sent it in. The application included her name, cell phone number, Social Security number, former home address and e-mail address, the affidavit says.

The woman was one of three winners of the scholarship, for which Urbina was one of six evaluators.

She told investigators that she had been getting "almost daily" text messages from Urbina, in which he called her "beautiful," said he missed her and asked, three times, about her underwear. One, she said, read that he was "not talking to (her) for sex" but for "more" - a long-term relationship, she believed.

He had also gone to the woman's apartment in May to give her and her roommate graduation gifts of flowers, chocolates and champagne, she told investigators.

Urbina has been teaching criminal justice courses at UWM since 2000, said Stan Stojkovic, dean of UWM's Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Stojkovic said he could not comment on the allegations.

"The whole issue now is being assessed," Stojkovic said.

Urbina's attorney, Robin Shellow, called the allegations "a complete misunderstanding" of the assistant professor's relationship with the student.

"The ordinary and usual situation of a university professor encouraging and helping students . . . has been completely misunderstood here," Shellow said.

Assistant District Attorney David Feiss said he does not know when the issue of possible criminal charges against Urbina will be decided.