Boy, 16, to be tried as adult in Wharton attack

The prosecutors' move means that hearings and a possible trial will be open to the public. The 16-year-old boy charged with attempted murder in connection with the November 8 knife attack on a female University sophomore inside Steinberg-Dietrich Hall will be tried as an adult, a supervisor in the District Attorney's Office's Juvenile Unit said yesterday. Steven Woodson -- who University Police had initially said was 17 -- is scheduled to have his preliminary hearing Monday morning, according to Assistant District Attorney Angel Flores. The move by prosecutors means that hearings will be open to the public and information on the case will be more readily available than if Woodson were tried as a juvenile. Unless Woodson's attorneys waive the hearing -- which they may do if he intends to plead guilty -- prosecutors will lay out their expected case against Woodson and ask a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge to certify the case for trial. Neither prosecutor in charge of the case was available for comment yesterday. Besides attempted murder, Woodson is accused of aggravated assault, robbery, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and several other related charges. Flores said authorities may also charge Woodson with burglary and robbery for several incidents unrelated to the assault inside the main Wharton School building. Woodson, of the 4300 block of West Pennsgrove Street in West Philadelphia -- about one mile northwest of the crime scene -- remains in the custody of the Philadelphia Police Department. The name of his attorney was not immediately available. Relatives of the suspect could not be reached for comment last night. The boy was arrested last Thursday on the basis of what Penn Det. Commander Tom King yesterday called substantial physical evidence found at the scene of the attack and other "corroborating evidence," which he declined to specify. University Police officials, who investigated the case jointly with the city police, have said they are "supremely confident" in Woodson's guilt, and King reiterated that sentiment yesterday. The charges stem from an early-morning attack in a basement bathroom of Steinberg-Dietrich. The victim entered the restroom just before 3 a.m. When she left her stall the attacker allegedly grabbed her and wrestled her to the ground. As they scuffled, she managed to hit two panic alarms, forcing the assailant to flee into one of the stalls and allowing her to escape. Police believe that the attacker got into the building through a side entrance that was left open by a student inside studying. Steinberg-Dietrich is one of the few campus buildings open 24 hours a day. Initially, people close to the victim claimed that security was slow to respond to the incident and that one of the panic alarms didn't work. It has also spurred the Undergraduate Assembly to support several ways of improving security, such as requiring people to wear Penn ID badges when in a Penn building late at night. That proposal is being debated by Public Safety officials and others across the University. The UA passed two resolutions last week calling for Public Safety to improve security on campus. The student government organization is also trying to make a push for students to take more security precautions on their own. "We need to raise awareness among all members of the Penn community," UA chairperson Bill Conway said.

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