YSU Former bosses reviewing work of new instructor

The instructor says his work in Cleveland will be validated.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Just weeks after entering into a retirement settlement with a professor whose credentials were called into question, Youngstown State University officials have hired another instructor whose professional work has been challenged.
The university entered into a contract with Joseph Serowik early this month. He is a former Cleveland police crime lab technician whose work is being challenged by Cleveland officials, The Plain Dealer says.
The newspaper reported in June that Serowik's 1988 testimony is said to have contributed to wrongfully sending an innocent man to prison for 13 years on a rape charge.
YSU officials were unavailable to comment on Serowik's hiring this morning though it was confirmed by Serowik.
Serowik was in an office today on the second floor of YSU's Cushwa Hall. He will be working for YSU as an assistant professor teaching forensic science as part of the university's criminal justice department. His salary for the full-time post will be $48,000 a year.
Serowik said he takes exception to the allegations made regarding his work.
"I'm confident when all is said and done, my work will be vindicated and I will be vindicated," Serowik said.
"I'm looking forward to a good working relationship with the university" he added.
Duties of job
Serowik noted that he previously has served as a part-time instructor at the university. He declined to go into further details about his work in Cleveland, where he served from 1987 until recently as a scientific examiner.
The job, according to his r & eacute;sum & eacute;, entailed his testing items found at crime scenes to help establish facts based on evidence.
It was Serowik's work in that capacity that was brought into question in the Michael Green case in Cleveland. Green was wrongly convicted of rape in 1988. He was released from prison in 2001, after DNA testing proved that he was not the rapist.
According to The Plain Dealer, Green recently settled a lawsuit with the city of Cleveland, which agreed to pay Green and his attorneys $1.6 million. The settlement also requires the city to review work performed by Serowik and some of his colleagues during the last 17 years, the Cleveland newspaper said.
The newspaper said that Serowik's alleged fraudulent analytical techniques have been so frequent that questions are now being raised about more than 100 cases in which he has testified since he became a scientific examiner for the city.
A YSU criminal justice student, who didn't want to give her name, said this morning that she and others were disappointed by Serowik's hiring. Many did not know of his past until he was hired, she added.