{"id":14386,"date":"2012-11-07T02:11:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T02:11:56","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-11-07T02:11:56","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T02:11:56","slug":"St-John-s-Dean-of-Mean-Cecilia-Chang-commits-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14386","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s ‘Dean of Mean’ Cecilia Chang commits suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. John\u2019s University’s so-called \u201cDean of Mean,\u201d Cecilia Chang, was found dead of an apparent suicide inside her Queens home, a day after melting down on the witness stand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chang was on trial for allegedly embezzling $1 million from St. John’s and using foreign students as her personal, indentured servants.<\/p>\n

Chang hung herself and cops found her body at 7:38 a.m. inside the disgraced administrator’s Jamaica Estates home<\/strong>, according to federal and local law enforcement sources.<\/p>\n

Chang attempted suicide twice before she was successful, sources said.<\/p>\n

She tried to slit her wrists and kill herself with gas from her fireplace, according to law enforcement sources. When both of those attempts failed, she hanged herself.<\/p>\n

A member of the defense team showed up at Chang\u2019s house to pick her up this morning, and no one answered the door, according to law enforcement sources.<\/p>\n

The driver smelled gas and called authorities, who eventually got inside Chang’s home and found her body, sources said.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., presiding over her trial, called Chang’s death a \u201cShakespearean tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge theorized that Chang wanted to testify on her own behalf yesterday as a final sign-off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be why wanted to testify — sayonara,\u201d Johnson said, outside the presence of jurors. \u201cShe wanted to get it off her chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge added: \u201cWe never know how an individual handles pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson declared a mistrial without jurors in court. He then went back to the juror\u2019s room and broke the shocking news behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Chang is no longer with us,\u201d<\/strong> Johnson announced to jurors, according to panelists.<\/p>\n

For several seconds, jurors said they had no idea what Johnson was trying to tell them, before he went into the grim details.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were stunned, stunned,\u201d said juror Joan Brophy, a Staten Island resident. \u201cWe were not expecting to hear something that tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were shocked,\u201d Brophy added. \u201cIt was a shame because she probably punished herself more than anyone could. She didn\u2019t deserve to die. She punished herself far worse than anyone here could have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer Joel Cohen called his client’s case a “complex human drama” and lauded her work for St. John’s.<\/p>\n

“Cecilia Chang dedicated 30 years of her life to St. John’s University,” Cohen said in a prepared statement. “She was a prolific fundraiser and tireless advocate for her beloved Asian Studies program at the university. Her death today is a sad ending to a complex human drama.”<\/p>\n

A St. John\u2019s spokesman urged students, staff and worshippers to pray for Chang\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/queens\/st_john_dean_of_mean_tnROIZnwdT9bZeP7ueNnpL\/1
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. John\u2019s University’s so-called \u201cDean of Mean,\u201d Cecilia Chang, was found dead of an apparent suicide inside her Queens home,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"St. John\u2019s University’s so-called \u201cDean of Mean,\u201d Cecilia Chang, was found dead of an apparent suicide inside her Queens home,","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":141,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}