Last fall a noose was found outside the office door of an African-American professor at Teachers College of Columbia University. Since then, the case has taken several strange twists. A university investigation found that the professor, Madonna G. Constantine, had plagiarized the work of a colleague and two graduate students (she strongly denies this). As for the noose incident, no one has been arrested, and the police have said little about it publicly.

Now, according to the New York Post, a Manhattan grand jury has subpoenaed Ms. Constantine’s university records. That will certainly give ammunition to those who have suggested that the professor planted the noose in order to arouse sympathy. Ms. Constantine denies she had anything to do with it and has said that it must have been put there by a colleague. —Thomas Bartlett