Dr. Marcus Cooper
WORCESTER - A UMass Medical School doctor accused of photographing a student in an on-campus women's bathroom is to be arraigned in December.
Marcus P. Cooper, 46, of 53 Lincoln Lane, North Grafton, will be summoned to court on charges of photographing an unsuspecting nude person and disorderly conduct, according to records in Central District Court.
A search warrant filed by campus police in September showed officials opened an investigation after a woman said she was in a bathroom stall and heard an audible click of someone taking a photograph. The woman, a 26-year-old student at the school, told officials she followed a man out of the bathroom, in the Albert Sherman Center, and chased him down the halls. The man was later identified as Dr. Cooper, who is also listed in court documents by the names of Markus Cooper and Mark Cooper.
In a witness statement logged with UMass police, Dr. Cooper said he was rather texting and emailing on his phone when he mistakenly walked into the women's room. He told police he walked away from the woman when she demanded to see his badge and his phone because the woman "implied that (I) was some strange 'black man' " and "she kept implying racial overtones."
In a clerk magistrate's hearing this week, probable cause was found to charge the doctor. A spokesperson for the school said Wednesday that Dr. Cooper was placed on administrative leave just after the incident.
Spokeswoman Lisa Larson said the doctor is a faculty member who is also a part of the UMass Memorial Medical Group. A spokesperson for UMass Memorial Medical Center said that as a "dual employee" of both the school and the medical center since 2008, Dr. Cooper spends the majority of his time as a researcher and academician with the school while maintaining a limited role as a cardiologist at the medical center.
The state Board of Registration in Medicine show Dr. Cooper has an active medical license; the Massachusetts board reports he has never been disciplined by the state and there is no record of out-of-state discipline.
Secretary of State records show Dr. Cooper also owns and serves as manager of Massage Ultra at 149 Boston Turnpike (Route 9) in Shrewsbury.
Dr. Cooper could not be reached for comment at his home or the Route 9 business Wednesday; his lawyer, James J. Gribouski, declined to be interviewed on his client's behalf.
In September, the woman in the case told police that when she was in the bathroom Sept. 1, she looked up and saw knuckles and a camera lens at the bathroom door "pointed down in her direction." She was partially clothed, she told investigators.
She said she saw Dr. Cooper try to run into the adjacent men's bathroom but she confronted him; the man refused to tell her his name, she said. The woman told police she told the man to go to campus police. She alleged he then told her, “You have no idea who I am and if you did, you wouldn’t be doing this.”
The woman told police she followed the man as he walked away, demanding he identify himself. He began to run, and the woman yelled for someone to stop him. Another woman then stepped in to help her.
In search warrant paperwork filed last month, an officer wrote that he was looking to search the doctor's iPhone 6 for photos, videos, audio clips, any and all electronic images stored or deleted and all texts and emails between 12:45 and 2 p.m. that day. Police last month did not carry out the search in the end.
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