The dean of Villanova Law School in Philadelphia, Mark Sargent, resigned this week after being involved in a prostitution case, the Philadephia Inquirer reports. Police investigating a prostitution ring in relied on two customers, including Sargent, to provide information that culminated last week in a no-contest plea by the man promoting the business, documents show. Sargent was not charged.
Stephen Clark, was arrested Nov. 26 and pleaded no contest to charges of promoting prostitution and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 5 to 23 months in jail. Clark, 62, said he believed a “celebrity perp,” as he called Sargent, got a free pass and influenced the outcome of his case. “That’s absolutely not true,” said Chester County District Attorney Joseph Carroll. Sargent, dean since 1997, wrote an article in the Villanova Law Review titled “Lawyers in the Moral Maze,” on why corporate lawyers often engage in behavior that violates their own ethics.