Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A professor at Teachers College of Columbia University who found a hangman's noose outside her office in October said a charge by the school that she plagiarized articles is part of a racist conspiracy.

Madonna Constantine, a professor of psychology and education, said the school accused her of plagiarism because of ``structural racism that pervades this institution,'' according to an e-mailed statement released by her lawyer today.

``This investigation, along with other incidents that have happened to me at Teachers College in recent months, point to a conspiracy and witch-hunt by certain current and former members of the Teachers College community,'' Constantine's statement said. ``As one of only two tenured black women full professors at Teachers College, it pains me to conclude that I have been specifically and systematically targeted.''

Teachers College, affiliated with Manhattan-based Columbia, said that Constantine ``used others' work without attribution'' in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years, according to a statement from Rubenstein Associates, the public relations firm handling the matter for the school.

The noose is under investigation as a hate crime by New York police, who made no arrests. Constantine's lawyer, Paul Giacomo Jr., said he believes the noose and the plagiarism charges were aimed at forcing Madonna from the school.

``There have been attempts from the very top of the administration of Teachers College to intimidate and blackmail Madonna Constantine into leaving the college,'' Giacomo said in a telephone interview.

Finding to be Appealed

Constantine will appeal the plagiarism finding to a faculty committee, he said. Neither the college nor Giacomo would specify the plagiarism punishment imposed on Constantine.

A Teachers College spokeswoman said the plagiarism allegations arose before the noose discovery. Three people came forward ``with essentially the same allegation about Professor Constantine,'' said Marcia Horowitz, of Rubenstein Associates.

A lawyer hired by the school found two dozen instances of Constantine's writing that were similar to what was written by those three people, Horowitz said.

``Professor Constantine's explanation for the strikingly similar language was not credible,'' said the college statement.

A panel of four current and former ``distinguished professors'' from Teachers College, two of them black, reviewed the report and recommended serious sanction, Horowitz said. The noose ``had no bearing on the way the investigation was conducted, the findings, or the sanctions imposed,'' she said.

Temple University

Constantine joined Teachers College in 1998 after working at Temple University in Philadelphia. She couldn't be reached for comment and Giacomo, who said he was hired to represent her in the plagiarism investigation, wouldn't make her available for an interview.

Giacomo said the allegations that Constantine used others' work without attribution are ``entirely and completely false.'' He said some of her accusers had lifted words from her writings. ``It shows an outrageous pattern of discrimination toward her,'' he said.

Constantine said school officials insisted she sign a statement about the investigation, which she refused.

``I would never admit to doing something that I did not do,'' she said in her statement.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger described the noose at the time as ``an assault on every one of us.'' Students held a campus protest, attended by Constantine and Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman, the day after it was discovered.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Kladko in Boston at bkladko@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 20, 2008 17:48 EST