Vet Hospital assault was 'unfounded,' police rule

A woman's claim that she was assaulted in the basement of the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in August is "unfounded," police have determined. The 28-year old Veterinary student was found semi-conscious and bound in a basement locker room of the Veterinary Hospital August 28. She told police she did not remember what happened to her. Philadelphia Police Sex Crimes Unit Lt. Ken Coluzzi commented at the time that the woman's "hands were bound with a dog leash and her blouse or her top portion of her clothes were pulled up kind of like around her head." University Police also concluded that a similar incident last May -- when the woman said she had been hit on the head from behind -- and more than 30 threatening letters she received over the summer are also unfounded, University officials said. Public Safety officials announced their findings Monday, while most students were away for fall break. Philadelphia news outlets reported on the development earlier this week, also while many students were away. University spokesperson Ken Wildes noted that "this is an extremely complex situation" and that all the answers may not be known for a long time. He refused to say exactly what "unfounded" meant, advising instead that "you draw your own conclusions." But Public Safety Special Services Director Susan Hawkins said "unfounded basically means that no criminal act occurred." "The events could not have occurred the way they were reported," she said. Hawkins refused to comment on any specifics in the case. She stressed that "there are great concerns to protect the privacy of the student involved," and noted that "we don't know precisely what occurred." "There's obviously something troubling going on here," she said. "We're concerned for her. But she was not the victim of any criminal act." Although University officials refused to speculate on this incident, there are a number of explanations -- some of which are psychological -- for an "unfounded" case. "I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this is faking," Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Ilene Rosenstein said. She cited University confidentiality policies in refusing to comment on this specific case or whether she has ever spoken to the woman involved, but she described some of the possible psychological explanations that could explain why a case is termed "unfounded." Someone may fabricate such an incident for personal gain -- a condition known as "malingering," according to Rosenstein. Even though the explanation could be as deliberate as "malingering," she noted that this type of incident does not always result from a conscious decision-making process. "Basically, the person may not be totally aware that they're either exaggerating the truth or falsifying an event, may not even perceive what they're doing is made up? and the person sometimes does that for attention," she explained. Yet another possibility in this type of case is what Rosenstein called the "disassociate disorder" where the person does not remember what they did or what happened to them during that period of time. Above all, she stressed that incidents such as these should not lead people to doubt women who claim that they have been sexually assaulted or raped. "The majority of people -- 98 percent -- do not make up things like rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment," she noted.