A Hungarian pianist who won a Fulbright Scholarship to do post-graduate studies at UCLA has agreed to a mediation session in her lawsuit against the regents of the University of California, which alleges one of her professors lured her into a sexual relationship and increased the grade he was giving her after an intimate encounter.
To accommodate the parties in their scheduled Sept. 19 date with a mediator, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis signed an order Monday extending to Sept. 30 the deadline by which the defense must respond to plaintiff Tunde Krasznai’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit. Filed May 31 against the regents and UCLA music professor Robert Winter, the complaint alleges harassment and failure to prevent harassment.
Krasznai met Winter when she took his Music 302 class in the spring quarter of 2014, the complaint states.
Winter “immediately began engaging in grooming behavior and identified Ms. Krasznai as a sexual target,” the suit alleges.
The professor made sexual advances that Krasznai was afraid to resist because Winter had the ability to end her studies and ruin her career as a pianist, the suit states.
“After being pressured to and having had sex with Winter, Winter retroactively changed the grade that Krasznai received in his course from B+ to an A,” the suit alleges.
Worried about her immigration status and her ability to remain a student at UCLA, Krasznai continued submitting to Winter’s sexual demands through June 2015, the suit states.
Krasznai began taking part in piano competitions at age 10 and won an international competition a year later, the suit states.
