David Flory, NJ Professor, Ran Complex Prostitution Ring, Has a Bad Teacher Rating

Physics professor David Flory, who has taught at New Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University since 1969, also found the time to head a prostitution website that employed about 200 prostitutes serving around 1,200 clients, according to police. Flory was arrested over the weekend at a Starbucks in New Mexico, where he has a home in addition to his Manhattan residence. Flory was charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution through the website Southwest Companions, a place "for prostitutes and johns to have a safe place 'to hobby,' as he called it, without fear of arrest by law enforcement," an Albuquerque investigations officer said. The website, meanwhile, is password protected, but still up.

Police called the site "moderated and organized" because it featured a "three-tiered hierarchy system," in which good customers were rewarded with better options, as well as tips on how to avoid getting caught.

Flory, a married father of three, had his properties in New Mexico, New Jersey and New York searched, in addition to phones and computers, and as of this afternoon, he remains in jail with a $100,000 bond.

His students may be relieved: on Rate My Professors, he has just a 2.7/5 rating. "He is nice, talks a lot," reports one physics student, "but virtually impossible to follow in class." Another puts it more simply: "don't take him!!!"

[Reuters, NYP]