KATV: Following the Paper Trail: Stolen Words

It all unfolded mid-April of 2015, when a local attorney and blogger wrote one blog after being tipped off that Dexter Suggs, former LRDS superintendent, had plagiarized his dissertation while obtaining his doctors at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Following this blog post, I attended a public event where I questioned “Dr.” Suggs regarding this accusation. On camera, Suggs said it was all of his original work and he denied the plagiarism allegations(4/16/15)

I began looking into it and while seeking the original author of the dissertation, the author herself called the Channel 7 Newsroom the very next day after the story aired of Suggs defending his original work. The author was able to prove and confirm that she had written that dissertation in 2005, four years prior to Suggs. After interviewing the author, again, we reached out to Suggs, but he had gone silent after my second story aired (4/17/15).

A few days later, (4/20/15) Suggs was scheduled to attend two public events but cancelled at the last minute.

The following day,(4/21/15) Suggs had turned in his resignation letter to the Arkansas Department of Education.

Just about two weeks later (5/5/15), a new superintendent was assigned to LRSD.

Indiana Wesleyan University revoked Suggs’ doctorate in early August 2015.

Reporters: Marine Glisovic, Matt Mershon

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