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GBI agents arrest Georgia Southern professor
Agent: Steven Benjamin Damelin arrested for falsifying statements and concealing facts
damelin steven benjamin WEB
Steven Benjamin Damelin - photo by Special

    Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents arrested a Georgia Southern University professor Wednesday following a two-month-long investigation, but agents have yet to release details about the case.
    GSU Police assisted GBI agents in serving an arrest warrant for Steven Benjamin Damelin, 41, of Jef Road, Wednesday afternoon, said Statesboro GBI Special Agent-in-Charge Micah Ward.
    Agents and GSU officers served Damelin with the warrant at the GSU Math Building. Damelin is charged with falsifying statements and concealing facts, but Ward said Wednesday he could not yet reveal additional information about the case at this time.
    He said the U.S. Attorney General's Office Southern District, requested the GBI's Statesboro office to open an investigation regarding Damelin about two months ago. However, he would not elaborate except to give current charges against Damelin.
    Georgia Southern University spokesman Paul Floeckher confirmed Wednesday that Damelin is a GSU math professor, but said he was unaware of any details surrounding the case. GSU Police referred calls to the GBI office.
    Damelin is still currently employed by GSU pending an investigation, Floeckher said.
    "The University System of Georgia Board of Regents has a policy that states, when a faculty member is charged with a serious crime, the president of the university shall conduct a thorough review of the circumstances," he said. "Georgia Southern University is currently in the process of conducting a review."
    According to information from Internet web site http://math.georgiasouthern.edu/~damelin, Steven Damelin was professor at the School of Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa before coming  to the GSU Department of Mathematical Science. He is the founding and present director of the Unit for Advances in Mathematics and its Applications (UAIM).
    Damelin was released from the Bulloch County Jail on a $1,000 property bond. Phone calls to Damelin's office Thursday were not answered, and his private number was not listed in directories.

 

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