Third woman accuses USC professor of sexual assault

A USC professor is facing mounting accusations of sexual misconduct after a former student sued him in Los Angeles court late last month.

The lawsuit by Nayoung Lee, a USC Ph.D. candidate, alleges that professor David Kang pressured her to perform domestic duties for his family, “aggressively propositioned” her romantically, then assaulted and harassed her while she was his research assistant.

The suit accuses USC of showing “deliberate indifference” to Kang’s behavior and fostering “a culture of harassment and degradation of its Asian female students.”

Lee is the third woman to accuse Kang of misconduct in court. In August 2024, Kyuri Kim, another of Kang’s former research assistants, sued USC and the international relations professor over an alleged years-long pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation.

That same month, a woman who played on a high school soccer team coached by Kang accused him in a lawsuit of groping her when she was 15.

Kang and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment, nor did attorneys for Lee. A university spokesperson said Kang is not teaching this semester but did not answer questions about whether he is on leave.

“The university takes reports of sexual harassment and discrimination very seriously and has a comprehensive process for investigating them and for providing supportive protective measures during that process,” the spokesperson wrote.

Kang is still listed in USC’s directory and is featured on Dornsife’s website.

Lee’s September lawsuit paints Kang as a serial harasser who allegedly pushed her into increasingly inappropriate situations while she worked for him.

In April 2020, Kang allegedly emailed Kim with the subject line “You look great!” while the two attended a virtual event. The body of the email said only, “Wow.” Kang’s wife was hospitalized in a coma with cancer at the time, the suit says.

After Kang’s wife died during the pandemic, the suit says he pressured Kim to “co-parent” his children: cook meals, sew them Halloween costumes, drive them to school, and attend family trips in place of his late wife.

Lee “felt compassion for Kang’s children but was highly uncomfortable with Kang’s constant bombardment of her with his manipulative communications and gifts.”

One of the most serious accusations stems from an October 2021 incident when Lee said she decided to tell Kang that she was in a serious relationship with her partner, who Kang knew.

“Kang became enraged,” the suit says.

“He lurched towards her on the couch so that his torso was towering over hers,” then encircled her thighs with his hands and “dug into them violently, repeatedly shouting in her face that ‘I want to marry you! I want to have children with you!’”

Kang allegedly “leaped up and paced around the house, slamming a wineglass in the kitchen and shouting expletives” then accused Lee of “sending him signals.” He told Lee that “he was ‘a catch’ and that she would regret not being in a relationship with him.”

The suit says Kang repeatedly texted, called, and emailed Lee and her partner for the next 12 hours. Later, the suit says, Kang removed Lee’s name from a research paper they had spent years working on — an act of “obvious harassment and retaliation.”

“USC was aware of Kang’s retaliation in real time, as his victims complained directly to USC about it, but USC did nothing to prevent Kang’s campaigns against the women whom he believed had crossed him,” the suit says.

The court filings reference two other USC students who told Lee they experienced similar alleged misconduct by Kang around the same time, but do not name them.

Kang is not the only USC professor whose alleged misconduct has made recent headlines.

The Los Angeles Public Press reported last month that USC considered dropping a sexual assault investigation against professor C.W. Park if he agreed to retire early. USC is now attempting to destroy copies of internal emails made public during a lawsuit against Park.

Lee, for her part, is seeking damages for conduct by Kang and USC that she says jeopardized her academic career and wellbeing.

“Kang was not just a grieving widow that had targeted her individually,” the suit says. “He was a calculated actor who systematically targeted Asian women to serve his personal and sexual requirements.”

Tomo Chien can be reached at [email protected].