Over a decade ago, David Powers, 32, got busted in New Jersey for selling acid and ecstasy. He did a year of in-patient rehab and three-years of probation, and moved on with his life, eventually becoming an accountant at Price Waterhouse Coopers, which hired him despite the dark spot on his past. But what Powers really wanted to do was practice law, so he went back to school at St. John's University. He says he was up front about his criminal record, but when the time came to take the bar exam, the university refused to write him a crucial letter of support, and he was ultimately expelled. Now, of course, he's suing. Or rather, he's hiring someone to sue for him. more ›

A St. John's student was arrested after threatening to "do some Virginia Tech shit" as his Facebook status. Radames Santiago, an 18-year-old from Washington Heights, posted the vague threat on Monday and then followed up the next day with a status that he “knows he will do it. You know I will, and to make sure that people watch CNN or something every day after” he kills everyone. Instead of tuning in, "friends" of Santiago dialed up St. John's officials, who informed police. Santiago justified "what he was doing" by giving the same reasons that many people leave a Facebook status that causes their friends to banish them to their hidden lists—he told cops that he was drunk and depressed "about everything" when he left them. Now that's a status that may have gotten some Likes. Instead Santiago could now face up to 7 years in prison. Queens DA Richard Brown said, “If a defendant posts a threat on a social networking site it will be treated seriously and investigated thoroughly." Two years ago, the campus was locked down when a student brought a rifle to campus; he was apparently schizophrenic. more ›

A family from North Carolina has come up to New York in search of 19-year-old Erica Desai, who has been missing since January 20th—but some are speculating that she may just be AWOL. Desai was dropped off at her St. John's dorm on Utopia Parkway by her cousin after getting picked up from LaGuardia following her return home for the semester break. That was the last time she was seen. Her ATM card was used the next day to withdraw $150 from a midtown ATM. Surveillance tape shows the card being used by a woman that CBS-2 says is "obviously of Indian descent" (like Erica) along with an older black male. Her family swears that it can't be her. Her uncle said, "It was not her, it was somebody else. Well, we saw the video and somebody else withdraw the money from her account." Desai had just been expelled from school last month. more ›

A chaplain at St. John's University was arraigned yesterday for sending homemade masturbation movies to someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy. It turned out that Father Charles Plock was actually e-mailing a Colorado sheriff the videos in which his face is clearly visible and which appear to have been shot on campus. Plock also serves on the board for Covenant House, the nonprofit organization that shelters runaway teens. One teenage freshman at St. John's called Plock "way too cool to be a priest" while another said to the Daily News, "Father Charlie? No way! He was a pretty all right guy." As he left the Queens courthouse where he appeared yesterday, a crowd heckled Plock shouting "Shame on you!" and "Pedophile!" The $15,000 needed for a bond to have Plock released to psychiatric facility was put up by fellow priests at St. John's. more ›