NEW BRITAIN — A former professor arrested after allegations that he sexually assaulted a student is now being sued.
Shannon Cunningham filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Daniel Gula, 52, formerly a professor at Central Connecticut State University.
The lawsuit alleges that while Cunningham was a student at CCSU and Gula was a professor there, he sexually assaulted her in his office. Cunningham claims she reported his conduct against her to the Woman’s Center at CCSU, the university’s Title IX Officer and the CCSU Police Department. According to CCSU police reports, Gula confessed to the conduct and was arrested.
Cunningham initially didn’t wish to pursue a criminal case against Gula, according to her lawyer, but when she found out that CCSU had permitted him to resign and that he subsequently was able to secure employment as a professor in an all‐women’s college, she sought his arrest and prosecution.
Gula was found guilty of second-degree unlawful restraint and first degree reckless endangerment, and was sentenced to a one‐year suspended jail sentence and two years’ probation.
Cunningham’s lawyer said she has “filed this lawsuit because she is determined to do what she can to hold Gula fully accountable for his actions, not only for her sake but for the sake of all female students with whom he may interact now or in the future.”
