Three Women Accuse Neil DeGrasse Tyson Of Sexual Misconduct

Whoa… so before I tell you all about THIS, let me be clear that these are ACCUSATIONS…not evidence. I don’t KNOW if he’s ACTUALLY guilty of anything – and I need to make that ABUNDANTLY clear, because I have expressed my dislike for this man on multiple occasions.

I WILL NOT ALLOW MY PERSONAL FEELINGS TOWARDS HIM TO TAINT MY OPINION OF HIS GUILT – OR LACK THEREOF.

Anyway, Carmine Sabia at Citizen Truth published an account of three allegations of sexual assault against deGrasse Tyson, each worse than the next.

Freelance journalist David G. McAfee spoke to the women who made the accusations:

Dr. Katelyn N. Allers, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Bucknell University, told McAfee that Tyson felt her up at a party for the American Astronomical Society in 2009.

“Tyson was there, and he was dancing and drinking and all of that at the party, so a friend and I decided to get pictures with him,” she said.

“After we had taken the picture, he noticed my tattoo and kind of grabbed me to look at it, and was really obsessed about whether I had Pluto on this tattoo or not… and then he looked for Pluto, and followed the tattoo into my dress,” she said.

There’s a photo of their encounter at the original sourcelink. This is by far the tamest of the allegations.

Another woman, Tyson’s former assistant Ashley Watson, said she had to quit her job due to Tyson’s inappropriate behavior.

At one point during their professional relationship, “he invited his underlying to his apartment at around 10:30 P.M. to “share a bottle of wine” and “unwind for a couple of hours.”

Watson, who said she felt pressured to impress her superstar boss, told me she agreed to come in for a glass of wine instead. Upon entering his apartment, Tyson allegedly took off his shoes and shirt, remaining in a tank top undershirt. Unfortunately, the night only got more awkward as Tyson, who is married, reportedly put on romantic music and replayed the most graphic parts.

She says Tyson soon brought out a cutting board and a knife to cut blocks of cheese that he decided they would share. But before slicing the snack, he allegedly gestured toward her with the knife and made a comment about stabbing.

Watson says she took the comment as a bad joke, but it’s important to note that this type of “joke” is exactly what people in power need to keep in mind when dealing with subordinates. And it set the stage for a night filled with subtle intimidation and sexual advances

Watson says Tyson started talking about how every human being needs certain “releases” in life, including physical releases. He reportedly mentioned how difficult it had been for him to be away from home for several months.

Watson says she left Tyson’s apartment quickly after the inappropriate sexual comments and that, the next day, she confronted him because she felt he had betrayed her as a mentor. He reportedly told her in that meeting that she’d never rise through the ranks in her career because she was too “distracting.”

Watson did report the incident prior to quitting her position.

The third allegation, from musician Tchiya Amet, is the worst:

She said Tyson had given her water and she passed out and “I woke up in his bed; I was naked… When he saw that I had woken up, he got on top of me and mounted me, and I passed out again.”

She claimed that she did not report it because “I didn’t tell anybody because when I had been an undergrad, I had some issues of molestation by a student and a faculty member, and when I went to report it to the authorities, they both told me not to say anything because it would ruin the person’s life.”

She said when she confronted Tyson about the rape he told her that they were “in this together.”

She allegedly confronted him at a live event in 2010:

“I didn’t know if anybody would hear me, but I said, ‘Today is national sexual assault awareness day in national sexual assault awareness month and I’m here because when I was a grad student at UT Austin in 1984 you raped me,’” she told McAfee.

So again… I’m not passing any sort of opinion of his guilt…

But here we are.