The sexual assault reported Oct. 31 at the Rodney Complex did not occur, according to university police. The alleged victim recanted her story last Thursday during the investigation, and the case was closed.
University police Chief Patrick Ogden said officers notified Rodney residents of the alleged sexual assault because of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which was signed into law in 1990 after a Lehigh University freshman was murdered by another Lehigh student in her residence hall four years earlier. The Clery Act requires all colleges to disclose information about crime occurring on campus in a timely manner.
"There were some things that she told us during the initial investigation that kind of aroused our suspicion, if you will," Ogden said. "So when she reported this, we were kind of not 100 percent sure that it happened, but we erred on the side of caution […] We thought it was best for the university community to put it out there."
After the student recanted her statement, she provided university police with details of the incident. Ogden said this information cannot be released.
The original report stated that an unidentified man followed the student into her residence hall and into her room at approximately 3 a.m. and touched her in a sexual manner. She texted her resident assistant, who then arrived at the student's room and was able to get the suspect to leave.
The suspect then attempted to enter another room in the complex but was stopped by other RAs. The resident of that room called the police.
Ogden said fliers describing the incident were posted on the glass windows of Rodney residence halls. Detectives used security camera footage and student interviews during their investigation.
He said the screen capture of the alleged suspect caught on a university security camera located on Amstel Avenue led to the student recanting her statement.
"It didn't come in handy as far as identifying the person, but it came in very handy as to kind of confronting some of the inconsistencies in the victim's statement," Ogden said. "That was very helpful. I think that was the key element as to why she finally recanted her statement."
He said although the student could have faced criminal charges for filing a false police report, he does not believe she will be charged. He stressed that this situation, while unfortunate, should not deter actual victims of sexual assault from coming forward.
"I don't want to make her out to be the villain," Ogden said. "If down the road, there's another sexual assault, I don't want a victim thinking they can't come to the police. I don't want a victim of a true sexual assault to think, ‘I'm not going to go to the police because they won't believe me.'"
He said university police will investigate any reports of sexual assault on campus thoroughly.
Freshman Julianne Shenton, a resident of Rodney Hall A, said she learned about the alleged attack through fliers posted around the complex by university police officers. While using posters to inform students about the alleged assault was an effective strategy, Shenton said she wished they provided more description of the suspect.
"It was very broad and it could've been any guy basically," Shenton said. "The way it described it was just like your average guy in a red shirt. It was kind of pointless, not going to lie."
She said the incident has caused her to be more wary of allowing others to follow her into the residence hall after she uses her PDI card to open the door.
"It makes you more conscious of who you let in and who you're not going to let in-I think more so for girls than guys," Shenton said.
Freshman Erika Vaughn said she now makes a more conscious effort to close the door behind her when she returns to her Rodney Hall B dorm. She said she was caught off guard when she heard about the incident.
"Apparently the guy was 20, and these are freshman dorms," Vaughn said. "So if you see a guy older than you trying to get in, it's really sketchy. I was kind of freaked out. Now when I see a guy who's not 18 around here, I get kind of scared."
Link:
http://www.udreview.com/news/ud-police-sex-assault-story-false-1.1765581
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9 comments:
Hey, wait a minute, I hear all the time that women and girls would NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, lie about rape...EVER!
Gender / Raunch feminists have "Empowered" themselves on campuses around the country, by keeping campuses in a state of "perpetual hysteria".
What happens to a society that "harbors the hystera" and attacks any testosterone that would challenge the hystera??
A state of perpetual hysteria!!
"I don't want to make her out to be the villain," Ogden said. "If down the road, there's another sexual assault, I don't want a victim thinking they can't come to the police. I don't want a victim of a true sexual assault to think, ‘I'm not going to go to the police because they won't believe me.'"
When is this backwards ass thinking going to end? Allowing more false accusations by not holding false accusers accountable makes women who have actually been assaulted less credible, not more credible.
False rape accusations benefit actual rapists in two easily explained ways: it diminishes the credibility of actual victims, and it wastes time and money that could have been used to solve actual rapes.
If rape is as prevalent as the feminists claim, why would they want to squander limited law enforcement and judicial resources on false claims? If they were truly against rape, and not merely exploiting it for political purposes, they would fight to make the system as efficient as possible.
"Now when I see a guy who's not 18 around here, I get kind of scared."
Because of a story that turned out to be false?
"He said the screen capture of the alleged suspect caught on a university security camera located on Amstel Avenue led to the student recanting her statement."
This had to be one of the most garbled and unintelligible attempts at reporting I've seen lately.
Trying to piece it together in a meaningful way, a man, who was alleged to have entered without permission, assaulted the women he followed in, then was confronted by more than one RA, and was recorded and identified by video surveillance.
And yet, that very video evidence of him entering the building and allowing him to be identified serves as the basis for getting the women to recant her claims.
The only way I can see this making the least bit of sense is that the video actually shows not him slipping in without the womans knowledge or permission (as per her claim to police), but rather her inviting and escorting him in.
If so, then the basis of her claims would appear to have been disingenuous, and suggesting that any sexual contact was not a matter of a stranger to her sneaking in and assaulting her, but more likely something entered into (consensually) with someone she knew (and perhaps then changed her mind about).
At any rate, being caught in a lie by police will cause a woman's entire claim to be questioned, and the investigation turned back on her (which, as we've seen, has the feminists in the SGI shrieking), and compelling her to come clean.
More good news. Aside from our own E. Steven Berkimer (responding to an apparently deleted comment suggesting that she should be raped for her crime), the rest of the comments at the UD Review site are running completely in-line with what we here have been stating for years. Not one single comment in her defense or attempting to argue the canard of "where there's smoke, there's fire".
It's a slow process, but the hearts and minds of people are being changed. Whether it's because the FRS is starting to create greater influence on the private discourse of people, or if some are simply bothering to take a look at the empirical evidence and are independently starting to figure out that FRA's are quite pervasive and that they ruin the lives of the innocent, it's happening never-the-less.
This is a very good thing to see happening.
Slwerner,
Yeah, they removed the comment. And rightfully so. Raping someone who makes an FRA is not even remotely the answer (get that Bart? We don't promote rape).
Even if that post was meant as a joke, it wasn't funny. Punishment equal to the crime being alleged, with mitigating factors for:
1. If someone is arrested due to the claim.
2. Someone is charged due to the claim.
3. Someone is prosecuted and sent to prison for the claim.
With lesser punishment the further back in the chain you go. But punishment none the less.
"Name the accuser. She committed a crime and it's only fair. There would be NO hesitation publishing the name of an alleged rapist before there was any proof, why not her?"
Above is my comment at UDReview. I copy it here for those who think there aren't feminists who support FRS.
Policemen are the most common victims of false cases in spite of the fact that they do help the citizens a lot. I hope, somehow, they will know how to handle this kind of situation.
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