SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Hours after California State University, Sacramento's president condemned the behavior of a professor and his wife caught on camera in an "ugly" confrontation with neighbors, the educator apologized for his wife's use of a racial slur and said she was seeking help for alcohol and drug abuse.
The video of associate professor Tim Ford and his wife was initially posted on Facebook May 1 by their neighbor, Mikaela Cobb. The video has been widely circulated online and received thousands of views.
In a written statement released Friday afternoon by their Elk Grove-based attorney, Jonathan Stein, Ford said the past few days have been "a trying time" for him and his wife.
"While we've had difficulties with this neighbor, this particular confrontation got out of hand," said Ford, a professor in the Sac State economics department. "My wife used some language that was unacceptable, and does not represent my way of thinking."
In the video, Ford's wife appears to be intoxicated during the confrontation with the neighbors. She used the racial slur more than one toward one of her neighbors. She called the woman recording the confrontation on video a "b__" and flipped off the camera.
"I'm a professor at Sac State, dude. I have a Ph.D. I don't need to be dealing with s_ like this," Ford tells his neighbor in the video. He also tossed what he was drinking in a can at his neighbor's window.
The video was first reported Tuesday by the school's State Hornet newspaper.
Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen said Friday morning that he had recently received and watched the "very disturbing video" that showed a self-identified professor and his wife in "an ugly verbal dispute with their neighbors."
Even though the couple's neighbors are not Sac State students, Nelsen said it doesn't change the seriousness of this situation. He said he was incredibly upset by the video and the harmful impact it was having on the campus community.
"I am deeply offended by the language in the video," Nelsen said in a statement posted on Sac State's Facebook page. "Racial epithets are repulsive and unacceptable."
Ford apologized to everyone at Sac State, the couple's friends and family and the surrounding community, and he promised "that something like this will never happen again."
"She recognizes the hurt and anger that she has caused and regrets it," Ford said of his wife. "Today, she is seeking help and has checked herself into a hospital for alcohol and drug abuse."
Ford also apologized to his neighbor, Cobb, and hopes she will accept his apology.
"I'd be happy to sit down with her to help rectify the situation," Ford said.
In her initial Facebook post of the video, Cobb wrote that the couple were her upstairs neighbors in an apartment complex, and the couple fights every day and their arguments had recently been happening downstairs, the State Hornet reported.
Nelsen said the school strives to be inclusive, and "we absolutely do not condone this sort of language or behavior."
Nelsen said the university would not address this "unfortunate and unacceptable incident" again publicly, which the school considers a personnel matter, and that he hopes the confrontation between neighbors doesn't diminish the campus commitment to making Sac State an inclusive and equitable community.
"We must embrace and honor our diversity. We must be strong together," Nelsen said in his statement. "We must continue to be a caring university, committed to eradicating bigotry, racism, and intolerance."
