Yale professor with Los Angeles ties dies in police custody

Police in New Haven, Conn., this week were investigating the death of a 34-year-old Yale professor while he was in jail over the weekend.

Assistant English professor Samuel See -- a graduate of Cal State Bakersfield who also held a doctorate from UCLA -- was arrested Saturday after an apparent domestic dispute with his husband at See’s home, police told local news media.

Police said the two men, who were apparently separated, had protective orders against each other, and both were arrested.

Police said See got upset that he was being arrested at his own home and began to resist officers, at one point yelling, “I will kill you,” and, “I will destroy you,” as he was being led to a police car, according to a police statement published by the New Haven Independent.

See was transported by ambulance to a hospital with a cut above his eye and was taken to a cell at the Union Avenue Detention Facility, where he was alert the night of the arrest but found dead the next morning, police told the Register.

His death is under investigation by New Haven police. The chief state medical examiner’s office told the New Haven Register that the cause of death is pending further studies.

Police and a Yale University spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday afternoon.

See had been due in court next week to enter a plea for a separate incident in September when he was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault and breach of peace, according to online court records.

See had been on leave for the fall semester, according to Yale’s website.

“My research and teaching focus primarily on British and American modernist literature and sexuality studies,” See’s online bio said. “I’m currently interested in the questions that aesthetic and sexual feeling present for literary historiography.” He taught classes on European and American literature.

See received his bachelor’s in English from Cal State Bakersfield in 2001, and a doctorate in English from UCLA in 2009.

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