As rumors fly, police defend handling of assault

Though the student attacked on campus Sunday has made no public comment, her friends have blasted the police. With e-mails circulating around campus purporting to tell "the truth" about Sunday's early-morning assault of a female sophomore in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, Penn Police Chief Maureen Rush yesterday defended her department's handling of the incident and disputed the second-hand accounts that have sparked wide controversy. All of these e-mail accounts -- one of which, for instance, carries the subject line "the Truth about the SHDH incident" -- are from people claiming to have talked to the victim or a friend of the victim. The letters have claimed that many panic alarms in the bathrooms do not work. They also accuse police of misleading the Penn community, treating the victim poorly and downplaying the incident by failing to label it as a sexual assault. The victim herself, the only person who could possibly give a definitive account, has yet to make any sort of public statement about the attack. She has also declined to comment to The Daily Pennsylvanian; a friend said she left Penn yesterday to recuperate at home. The reported assault occurred just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, when the University sophomore said she was attacked by a knife-wielding man in a basement restroom of the main Wharton building, which is open 24 hours. The man came at her with a 10-inch kitchen knife, inflicting multiple cuts and bruises on her face and back and causing a black eye, police said. None of the cuts required stitches, according to police. The victim fought back and managed to hit two panic alarms before the man, who remains at large, fled from the room. Many people close to the victim say the first did not work. In response to the accusations against her department, Rush emphasized yesterday that "we're all on the same side." "It's understandable that after an event like this, people are angry. We want people to be angry, angry enough to figure out ways in which to make our community safer," Rush said. She also explained why the incident was not technically a sexual assault, even though that was "probably" the assailant's intent. "There was no contact of a sexual nature," she said. "We don't for a moment conclude that that may not have been a motivation," but there was no physical act and thus cannot be prosecuted as an attempted rape. And Penn Det. Commander Tom King added that not investigating the incident as a sex crime "doesn't minimize" the incident. "Getting assaulted with a knife is about as bad as it gets," he said. Rush and King also conceded that while all of the panic alarms in Steinberg-Dietrich worked when tested on Monday, it is possible that the first one the victim pushed did not. King said there was "no reason not to believe" that the first alarm the victim pressed did not sound, but emphasized that authorities tested all the alarms the next day and all were functioning. Director of Security Services Stratis Skoufalos, who oversees campus security systems like the panic alarms as well as the SpectaGuard security guards, did not return several phone calls for comment yesterday. King said that a detailed description of the entire incident given to the DP on Tuesday by a Wellesley College student who described herself as the victim's best friend is largely inaccurate. The friend had posted the account to a public electronic bulletin board at Wellesley and repeated it to the DP. According to King, a guard who was on duty in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall ran downstairs to the restroom as soon as he heard the alarm -- which he said may not have been immediately after it sounded -- and found the victim along with another student who was helping her. The security guard quickly scanned the area for the assailant before returning to the victim's side and calling for police officers to come to the scene, King said. But according to Elizabeth King (no relation), the Wellesley student, the victim waited for assistance that never arrived, and then left the building screaming for help. She finally found someone to help her and together they sought out police. By all accounts, the victim was then transported immediately to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was treated for her injuries and briefly interviewed by both Penn and Philadelphia detectives, Tom King said. Penn Director of Special Services Susan Hawkins, a clinical psychologist whose department within the Division of Public Safety provides support for crime victims, said yesterday that she arrived at HUP quickly and stayed with the victim throughout her stay there. Hawkins then accompanied her to the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District headquarters at 55th and Pine streets, where the victim looked through mugshots of possible suspects. While friends of the victim have decried the lack of University support for her, Hawkins said she has spoken with the student every day since the assault and has informed her of all the victim-support options Penn offers. Hawkins also acknowledged yesterday that one of the clerical nurses in HUP's emergency room said something to the victim which she interpreted as an accusation that the incident was her fault for fighting back against the attacker. Hawkins said she planned to speak to someone at HUP about the perceived rudeness. "They need to understand how to be appropriately sensitive to someone in that situation," she said. Penn Health System officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. Erin Healy, president of Penn's chapter of the National Organization for Women, said yesterday that the incident highlights the lack of adequate security in women's bathrooms. "People are very angry," the College junior said.

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