The dean of the UA College of Pharmacy, Jessie Lyle Bootman, was indicted for multiple sex offenses on Oct. 28.
According to a press release from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, Bootman was indicted for sexual abuse, felony sexual assault and aggravated assault by a grand jury.
Since the indictment, Bootman has been released from custody on his own recognizance, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
This means that Bootman did not have to post bail, but was required to agree to renounce his passport and to stay away from the woman who has accused him, her family and any people under the age of 18.
The incident under investigation happened on Oct. 2, at Bootman’s home. According to Nanos, a woman in her 40s and former UA student woke to various injuries at Bootman’s home and was treated at Tucson Medical Center.
The woman sustained multiple injuries, including a broken nose, injuries to her knee and lip, as well as serious trauma consistent with sexual assault.
She was a former business colleague of Bootman’s, but they had not spoken in over a year, Nanos said.
Bootman saw the woman and a friend at a restaurant and then invited the woman to see his home, which he claimed he recently bought. While at Bootman’s residence, the woman consumed a drink and “blacked out,” Nanos said.
Using a search warrant, detectives found incriminating evidence at Bootman’s residence. It is believed by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department that the assault involved date-rape drugs.
Nanos said he believes that this attack was premeditated with a clear motive. He also added that this might not be Bootman’s first sexual assault.
“Firstly, the house he said that he bought, he was actually renting—that makes me think he knew exactly what he was doing,” Nanos said. “I don’t have proof, but we are waiting for others—hopefully others will call— if there are others. I’m just having a hard time believing that a man of this stature, this age, just wakes up one day and says, ‘I think I’m going to do this.’ I just know that this victim, in my belief, was set up from the very beginning, and it was very much premeditated; … [Bootman] knew exactly what he was doing when she came over. He knew exactly what he was doing when she was passed out.”
This is not Bootman’s first run-in with the law. In September of 2011, Bootman was charged with aggressive and impaired driving, as well as unsafe lane changing. According to the Arizona Daily Star, online records show that Bootman pled guilty to aggressive driving and the other charges were dropped.
According to the official statement The Daily Wildcat received from Chris Sigurdson, vice president for communications of university relations, the UA College of Pharmacy has placed Bootman on paid leave from his $286,720-a-year job and suspended his administrative position.
“The [UA] has learned of the charges against one of our senior administrators, Lyle Bootman, dean of the College of Pharmacy, [and he] has been placed on leave, and his administrative assignment has been suspended pending our review of the circumstances,” Sigurdson said.
Nanos said he urges any other survivors to come forward to the police by dialing 911, or by contacting the Sheriff’s Department non-emergency line at (520)-351-4900.
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