University of Minnesota Professor Arrested For Allegedly Strangling His Fiancée

Hennepin County Jail

Aaron Herbert Doering, a 47-year-old University of Minnesota professor and climate change expert, has been arrested and charged with two felony counts of domestic assault by strangulation after he allegedly strangled his fiancée on Wednesday, December 26.

According to reports, Doering — who is a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota — allegedly dragged his fiancée through their apartment by her hair before “beating her and choking her to the point that she thought she would lose consciousness.”

Additionally, the criminal complaint stated that the unnamed fiancée told police that she feared Doering will kill her.

Doering, who is the director of the university’s Learning Technologies Media Lab and serves as a fellow for the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, was charged with two felony counts of domestic assault by strangulation in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday, December 27.

The University of Minnesota professor was placed in the Hennepin County on $40,000 bond and was scheduled to make his first court appearance on Friday, December 28.

via The Star Tribune:

Ac­cord­ing to the crim­i­nal com­plaint, of­fic­ers re­spond­ed to a re­port­ed do­mes­tic as­sault in prog­ress on Wednes­day night at an a­part­ment the cou­ple shares in the 1700 block of Mad­i­son Street NE. in Minneapolis.

When po­lice ap­proach­ed the door, they heard a man and woman ar­gu­ing in­side. Upon en­ter­ing, of­fic­ers sepa­rat­ed Doer­ing and his fiancé, who had red marks on her fore­head and bruis­ing in the shape of fin­gers on one side of her neck.

The woman told auth­ori­ties that dur­ing the course of an ar­gu­ment, Doer­ing had grabbed her by the hair and dragged her through­ the a­part­ment. He later beat and choked her un­til she was un­a­ble to breathe and felt as if she’d lose con­scious­ness, court re­cords show.

Speaking on behalf of the University of Minnesota on December 27, Lacey Nygard, the as­sist­ant di­rec­tor of pub­lic re­la­tions, said that Doer­ing’s em­ploy­ment sta­tus with the school “has not changed” at this time.

“We’re a­ware of the sit­u­a­tion, and will be re­view­ing the mat­ter,” Nygard said.

This article will be updated as further information and details become available.