LAS VEGAS (U-WIRE) — A University of Nevada-Las Vegas law student who was referred for disciplinary action when two female students objected to his looking at a sexually charged website during class will not face harassment charges, according to UNLV Judicial Affairs Officer Philip Burns.

The issue of a possible harassment investigation arose after an incident where Clarke Walton was asked by his law professor not to read from the Maxim website on his laptop. Two female classmates brought the issue to the professor’s attention.

“I was scared to death,” Walton said. “I thought, being in a writing class, the professor wanted to bring up a plagiarism issue. Maybe I didn’t site a source somewhere.” Walton continued, “I was absolutely shocked. Bewildered, floored, absolutely blown-away from this accusation.”

“What happened was that the student, Mr. Walton … had on his computer screen in the classroom some images of scantily clad women,” Law School dean Richard Morgan said. “Whether they were provocative or not, I’m not here to say. But in any event, there were students who did complain to the faculty member about those images.”

Walton agreed to remove the website from his computer’s home page.

“I considered it to be the men’s Cosmopolitan,” Walton said. “It’s a public medium, in my opinion. There is no age restriction to buy it. I did tell my professor that I would no longer view this magazine on my computer screen.”

Morgan commented, “Faculty members control their class, and if they don’t want people playing solitaire or reading the Wall Street Journal or looking at images on their computer screen during their class and would rather them pay attention in class, it is certainly in their purview to say, ‘Stop that.'”

According to Walton, his professor went on to explain that she would need to “share this with (her) peers.”

“I didn’t know what type of privacy I had,” Walton said. “My second thought was that by asking that I not view Maxim magazine on my personal computer that the request was in some way an infringement on my constitutional right to free speech.”

Walton continued, “Some of the faculty were bringing the incident up in class. I figured if these guys are saying this to my peers, I can only image what’s being said behind closed doors.”

Shortly after this incident, however, Walton’s accusers noticed that he posted a memo on the law school’s website admonishing them in what seemed to be an act of spite.

“There’s a list serve by which law students can communicate with each other, and Mr. Walton put out a message on that, and then that resulted in what they thought was an effort on his part to ostracize [them] to retaliate against them,” Morgan commented. “I talked to Mr. Walton yesterday and he denies that he even knows who his accusers were. He denies trying to ostracize them or do anything.”

“I wrote two statements — one regarding the Boyd Law School Honor Code and that it needed more speculation. In my second e-mail I wrote that I was informally accused of sexual harassment,” Walton said. “It was a proactive measure. It certainly incited controversy. I received close to 50 to 100 responding e-mails.”

That action in turn motivated students to issue a complaint to UNLV’s vice-president of diversity, Ann Casados-Mueller.

“Her e-mail said, ‘Clark, you’re under investigation for sexual harassment,” said Walton. “She essentially accosts me. She insists Maxim magazine is pornographic. By her definition it’s soft porn. In my opinion, she made antagonistic comments. She showed me a picture of a women from Maxim magazine … and asks me, ‘how does this make you feel? Does this picture sexually arouse you?’ I said it doesn’t sexually arouse me at all.”

Walton continued, “She said by her standards and her definition that Maxim was in no way Cosmo and in her opinion it was pornography. We butted heads.”

According to Walton, he pointed out the code provision that stated it had to be a repeat occurrence. Walton claims that Mueller and Burns, who accompanied Mueller in the meeting, stated that “in a court of law this may not be sexual harassment. But for the purposes of this investigation, we believe you sexually harassed these women and you are responsible.”

While a formal complaint has yet to be generated in writing, according to Burns, Walton has already been asked to write an essay to the law students and RJ columnist Steve Sebelius apologizing for his actions and to attend a diversity seminar taught by Mueller. They also, according to Walton, “chastised” the fact that he cooperated with the press on this issue.

The Yell contacted Mueller for comment, and she refused, stating that this particular issue is no longer in her office.

“In my opinion, that is completely ridiculous,” Walton said. “I never knew who my accusers were. They responded, ‘It doesn’t matter what your intent was, these women perceived this as offensive and we hold you responsible.”

“What we have is a situation with law students which has escalated to a point to where they are concerned with each others’ education and at least a couple of them have gone through the university process to seek relief,” Morgan said.

According to Walton, “I’m absolutely not planning on attending a seminar. I’m absolutely not planning on writing a letter of responsibility. I may do it on my own volition, but I will not do it because school asked me to.”

According to Student Conduct Code and Policies, in order to successfully file a complaint it needs to be filed with the administrative officer of the vice president for student life. Such complaints must be in writing and signed, including detailed information regarding the specifics of the incident and the name of a person who may have witnessed the alleged prohibited conduct.

“Now any complaint of harassment has to be dealt with very, very delicately,” Morgan said, “because harassment issues involve free speech very often.”

Walton confirmed that he was contacted by Gary Peck of the ACLU and was pledged full support from the ACLU legal council. Walton stated that all correspondence regarding this issue with the university will go through his ACLU council at this point.

Morgan concluded, “Law schools are places that are built with energetic people of different views and different perspectives. That’s what makes law schools interesting places. You can’t expect a law school to be free of controversy. All we can do is attempt to deal with controversy and criticism in responsible ways.

“Of course I wish I would be spending my time in ways other than talking with the press about this issue. I wished this issue had resolved itself earlier on. Things don’t always work out the way you want them to. All we can do is try to deal with the problems … better yet, try to present the problems in a way that offers opportunity for growth.”

Walton concluded, “I will admit that I was responsible for looking at Maxim magazine on my computer. I accept responsibility for looking at it. God bless it.”