Jesse Cheng, UC Student Regent, Steps Down

Jesse Cheng, UC student's regent, stepped down on Monday, after months of allegations that he sexually assaulted with a former girlfriend.

The LA Times has more:

Jesse Cheng, who is set to graduate soon from UC Irvine and had only two months left in his regent’s term, has denied the allegation and the Orange County district attorney declined to press charges against him. But a UC Irvine student conduct review found him guilty of a student code violation of “unwanted touching,” placed him on a probation status and said it would not consider his appeal, according to Cheng.

Cheng said Monday he did not want the matter to drag on and distract the regents from more important matters affecting student life. He said that no UC officials had pressured him to resign. “Now that I've gotten much of my agenda and goals accomplished or out of the way, I think it's the right thing to do for the student body,” he said in an email.

A graduate student at UCSF, Alfredo Mireles Jr., will replace Cheng at the next Regents meeting in May.