Backpack Soaked In Urine- Professor Tied To Pattern

School hallway with rows of teal lockers — Photo: Lissandra Melo / Shutterstock

A Minnesota college student stepped away from her backpack for six minutes and came back to find it soaked in urine, and investigators say it was not the first time this had happened at her school.

Story Snapshot

Former Macalester College professor Paul Jerome Fischer, 55, faces a first-degree property damage felony charge in Ramsey County, Minnesota.
A student says she found urine on her backpack after leaving it unattended for about six minutes near Fischer’s office on December 5, 2025.
Investigators reportedly tied Fischer to six separate urine incidents across the Olin-Rice Science Center dating back to November 2024.
Fischer told police he believed the urine spilled by accident while he was emptying a cup into a trash can.

What Happened Inside the Science Building

The student told campus investigators she left her backpack in a common area outside Fischer’s office at the Olin-Rice Science Center. She was gone only about six minutes. When she returned, she found urine soaked into her belongings and said Fischer was the only person she saw nearby during that window.

She later submitted an itemized receipt for damaged items totaling $2,070, according to court records cited by CBS News. That figure matters because Minnesota law charges criminal damage to property as a first-degree felony when the loss tops $1,000 and prosecutors can show the damage was intentional.

A Pattern Investigators Say Stretches Back Months

The criminal complaint reportedly lists six separate urine reports tied to Fischer across the same building, going back to November 11, 2024. Investigators say urine turned up in trash cans, in students’ water bottles, and even in a professor’s office decorations before the backpack incident ever happened.

That chain of incidents is what turned a single messy complaint into a felony case. Court documents describe Fischer admitting he had “developed a habit” of urinating into a cup and dumping it in campus trash cans or lab sinks, a routine he said had gone on for roughly a year and a half to two years.

Fischer’s Explanation to Police

Fischer did not deny the general habit. He told investigators he believed the backpack incident happened by accident, saying he was emptying a cup of urine into a trash can near his office when it apparently spilled onto the student’s belongings. He has not been reported as disputing that urine was present, only how it got there.

That distinction matters legally. Minnesota’s criminal damage statute requires prosecutors to prove the act was intentional, not accidental. Courts elsewhere have found similar bodily-fluid cases intentional when a person had an obvious sanitary alternative and chose otherwise, as in a Massachusetts case where a defendant urinated in his cell despite having access to a toilet.

Why the Repeated Reports Carry Legal Weight

Prosecutors rarely catch someone in the act of this kind of offense. Instead, cases like this one typically lean on circumstantial evidence: who had access, how often something happened, and whether the person’s own statements line up with an innocent explanation. The six prior incidents reportedly tied to Fischer give investigators a pattern to point to beyond the one accusation from the backpack.

Common sense says a one-time accident looks very different from a documented six-time pattern in the same building over more than a year. If investigators can show Fischer was present or responsible each time, that repetition becomes the strongest evidence against an “it was an accident” defense, regardless of what he told police after the fact.

Where the Case Stands Now

Fischer’s employment at Macalester ended sometime during the 2025–2026 academic year, according to reporting on the case. He now faces a first-degree property damage charge in Ramsey County District Court, which under Minnesota law can carry up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if he is convicted.

An arrest and a criminal charge are not a conviction, and the case will play out in court like any other felony matter. What is already clear from the complaint and Fischer’s own statements to police is that urine turned up repeatedly in one campus building, and investigators built their case around connecting him to each occurrence.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A former Macalester College professor faces a first-degree property damage charge after authorities say urine he spilled onto a student’s backpack caused more than $2,000 in damage.https://t.co/lpYc5rbuUF

— Twincitieslocalnews (@msp_local_news) October 10, 2026

The story has drawn national attention largely because of how unusual the allegations sound on their face. But underneath the headlines, it is a straightforward property crime case resting on witness statements, a dollar figure tied to real damage, and a defendant’s own account of a habit he says got out of hand.