Con law professor, a former law dean, is arrested on prostitution charge
Booking photo of John Attanasio
The former law dean of Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, John Attanasio, is free on $500 bond after his arrest early Sunday on a charge of prostitution.
The charge against Attanasio, currently a law professor at the school, is a class B misdemeanor, report the Dallas Morning News Crime Blog and WFAA.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety told the Dallas Morning News that the arrest was part of an ongoing investigation, but did not release further information about the alleged crime.
SMU did not renew Attanasio’s contract as dean when it expired in May 2013. After news of his ouster, a majority of the law school’s faculty wrote a letter supporting Attanasio. Though he remains as a professor at the law school, an SMU spokeswoman said he would not be teaching this week.
“I can confirm that John Attanasio is a full-time member of the SMU law school,” spokeswoman Patricia Ann LaSalle told the Dallas Morning News in a written statement. “It would not be appropriate, however, for SMU to comment on matters that are being investigated by area police.”
According to his faculty bio, Attanasio is the Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law at the school. He is co-author of a constitutional law textbook and a constitutional law treatise.
