HOW PROFESSOR MAYNARD BURNED DOWN

HE TAUGHT COLLEGE STUDENTS ABOUT LIFE AT THE MARGINS OF SOCIETY. NOW HE IS CHARGED WITH A CRIME HIS FIELD IS ONLY BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND.

- Andrew Rice

KATE WAS GARDENING in the front yard of her San Jose bungalow when her new boarder arrived in an Uber from the airport. It was the summer of 2019, a few weeks before classes were set to begin at nearby Santa Clara University. A friend who worked there had asked if she would rent out her guest room to a new adjunct sociology professor. Kate had Googled the name-Dr. Gary Maynard-and found his academic profile impressive. "He's good-looking," she says. "That didn't hurt."

Maynard, wearing a preppy polo and tattered sneakers, stepped out of the car with a heavy book bag. He was 45 with a lanky build, floppy hair, and a shambling demeanor. Kate showed her new roommate around the house. He seemed twitchy and anxious, and he left after just a few minutes, mumbling something about researching homelessness in San Francisco. Maynard didn't return until the next day. "He just disappeared," Kate says. "It was a little odd." Coming from a sociologist, it was a surprisingly antisocial introduction, but Kate wrote it off as eccentricity-maybe it was to be expected from a professor. She figured that Santa Clara, where tuition runs to over $56,000 a year, would have done its homework on anyone it hired. The university had given Maynard a one-year contract to teach a variety of subjects, including the cultural effects of technology, organizational diversity, and the sociology of crime.