Metro

A ‘court’ jester: Jurors snicker at ‘Dean of Mean’ excuses

I didn’t do it. Now stop laughing!

The former dean who’s accused of embezzling big bucks from St. John’s University took the stand in her own defense yesterday — and had jurors giggling at some of her I-didn’t-do-it spiels.

Cecilia Chang — the ex-dean of Asian Studies at the Queens campus who allegedly used students as indentured servants — insisted that all her transactions on behalf of the university were above board and that she was just trying to help the kids out by letting them work for her.

“I am always helping some poor students,” Chang testified at her trial in Brooklyn federal court.

While one student testified earlier in the trial that she was forced to wash Chang’s underwear by hand, the so-called “Dean of Mean” insisted that students who washed her laundry did so voluntarily.

The washing was simply a routine that began after one student offered to wash Chang’s clothes at the same time she did her own laundry, she testified.

And she insisted the students weren’t her personal chefs, either.

“The students always cook food for the table,” Chang said.

Chang, 59, also tried to shoot down prosecutors’ assertions that she used university funds for herself, and tried to disguise the transactions in foreign bank accounts.

Students had also testified that they were ordered to forge some bank documents by Chang, but she said she was unaware of any funny business.

Regarding a letter to a bank requesting a $28,000 transfer, the prosecutor asked Chang why the original clearly showed that the signature of another person was cut and pasted on the letter.

“My office did that. I’ve never seen that before,” Chang said, eliciting laughter from several jurors.

When a prosecutor asked why she told investigators she didn’t own any overseas bank accounts despite having more than $200,000 in one Hong Kong bank, Chang said she hadn’t remembered because she’d been drinking before the interview.

She said she’d also forgotten a $40,000 bank account — but proudly said she had told probers about her Asia Bank account in Queens.

“I’ve got so many bank accounts all over the world, I only remembered Asia Bank,” she said to more laughs.

While answering various questions about a tax form that misstated her place of residence as Taiwan and her citizenship as Taiwanese — she also holds US citizenship — Chang elicited laughter when directed by the judge to answer one question with either a yes or a no.

“Five percent yes, ninety-five percent no,” Chang said.