Professor no longer employed by Mason after alleged child porn possession, according to spokesman

The part-time Italian language instructor, arrested last week on charges of alleged child pornography possession, has been dismissed by George Mason University, according to University Spokesman Dan Walsch.

“He is no longer employed at the university,” Walsch said Friday afternoon.

Diego Fasolini, 42, who is also a part-time Italian instructor at George Washington University, was arrested Oct. 28, on the GWU campus by D.C. Metropolitan Police. GWU staff led police to find more than 100,000 images of suspected child pornography on an external hard drive owned by Fasolini, according to court documents.

Today’s information from the Mason spokesman comes a day after Mason Police said they are not conducting their own investigation into Fasolini. Major George Ginovsky said, “We have no investigation.”

Fasolini was scheduled to appear in D.C. District Court Tuesday, but the hearing was rescheduled for Thursday because Fasolini’s public defender, Mary Petras, did not attend, according to The GW Hatchet.

Thursday’s hearing was then also postponed until next week, according to The Hatchet.

The Hatchet reports Fasolini continues to be held without bond.

At Tuesday’s originally scheduled hearing, The Hatchet learned Fasolini is not a U.S. citizen, and declined his right to notify his home country’s consulate that he had been arrested.

C2M has reached out to Petras for comment, but has yet to hear back.

According to a student in Fasolini’s Mason Elementary Italian class, students received an e-mail from Fasolini Oct. 27, saying he had lost his voice and class was canceled. Then when students arrived to class Oct. 29, Fasolini did not show up, according to the student.

On Nov. 1, students arrived to class to find Assistant Italian Professor Kristina Olson leading a short 15-minute lecture. On that same day, Walsch said Fasolini’s classes were being covered after the university had learned of his situation.

C2M has reached out to Fasolini for comment, but has yet to hear back.

This is a developing story and updates will be posted to C2M as they become available.

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C2M senior news editors Jordan J. Frasier and Yasmin Tadjdeh contributed to this story.
 

(Photo taken from CreativeCommons.Org, photo by user steakpinball)