"He is stepping down for personal reasons," Sue Knapp, a spokeswoman for the College, said. "He notified the dean of the faculty that he would step down."
Granger will continue to direct Dartmouth's Brain Imaging Laboratory and maintain his position as a professor in the computer science department.
Lean Granger was arrested by Hanover Police Mar. 27 and subsequently extradited to California, where she awaits trial in Orange County Superior Court.
She is charged with eight counts, including grand theft and acts constituting forgery, according to the Orange County online case database.
Lean is accused of writing checks to herself from the Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, where she served as the treasurer and bookkeeper from October 2002 through November 2006, Sgt. Evan Sailor of the Newport Harbor Police said.
Lean also allegedly wrote checks to cover credit card bills for a company, Caspian Scientific, LLC., which is registered in her husband's name. Caspian, currently registered in New Hampshire, provides "consulting services in the area of interdisciplinary neuroscience," according to documents filed with the state. The company is "not in good standing," according to the New Hampshire company registry.
Before coming to Dartmouth in July 2006, Richard was a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UC Irvine's Brain Engineering Laboratory.
The Orange County District Attorney's Office prosecutor in the case, Yvette Patko, refused in past interviews to comment on whether Richard Granger is under investigation, citing office policy. Patko also would not confirm whether the investigation is ongoing.
Associate Dean of the Faculty Lindsay Whaley, a linguistics and cognitive science professor, will direct the Neukom Institute in the interim.
An e-mail to Richard Granger was not returned by press time.
