A Brown University assistant professor has been charged with second-degree sexual assault for allegedly sneaking up on a female graduate student and groping her, court records show.

Mohammad Ibrahim, who specializes in cancer pathology, pleaded not guilty to the felony charge in district court Friday morning in Providence, Rhode Island, records show.

A graduate student who worked in the same campus lab as Ibrahim told police he snuck up behind her in February and grabbed her breasts as he rubbed his penis against her back, according to Ibrahim’s arrest warrant.

She told police it happened twice in the lab and said no each time. At first, she said, she was hesitant to talk about her because he was in charge of the lab and had «threatened to kick her out of the program if she didn’t divorce her husband.»

Ibrahim, 34, did not respond to messages from a reporter. His lawyer, John Grasso, said Ibrahim «will defend himself and be exonerated of the false accusation against him.»

Brian Clark, a spokesman for Brown University, said Ibrahim has been placed on administrative leave, but declined to comment further. “Otherwise, we don’t have the freedom to talk about personnel matters involving individual employees,” he said.

The student filed for a restraining order against Ibrahim last month, court records show.

She said she and Ibrahim became friends online in 2020 and first met in person in the fall of 2021 when she moved to Mobile, Alabama, to attend the University of South Alabama School of Medicine.

She said he first grabbed her breasts when she was a student there, the arrest affidavit says. (Court records did not indicate whether she reported that to Alabama police.)

In September, he moved to Providence to attend Brown for his doctorate. Ibrahim finished his doctoral program in December and was hired to run the lab at Brown, according to the arrest warrant.

The woman told Providence police she did not initially report the alleged attacks in February “because of her supervisory position and her threats that she would never get her doctorate. without him,» according to the affidavit.

On a third occasion, another graduate student saw Ibrahim sneak up behind her and saw her jump and start shaking, but Ibrahim «just laughed at her and tried to play it as a joke,» the affidavit says.

Ibrahim was released on $1,000 bond, records show. His next court hearing is scheduled for July.