Charges dropped against assault suspect

U. employee Kenneth Ray, 61, was accused of assaulting a Penn Police office January 26. After two months of controversy over the arrest of a popular University employee for allegedly assaulting a Penn Police officer, all charges against 61-year-old Kenneth Ray were dropped this week. Ray, who has worked at the University for more than 30 years, had been charged with attacking one of two University Police officers who were investigating a burglary report outside of Blockley Hall on January 26. The official police report says that Ray inflicted right eye trauma and facial soft-tissue scratches to the officer, who needed hospital treatment. But Ray -- who spoke through his lawyer and has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter himself -- said he did not act in an aggressive matter at all. The district attorney moved to dispose of the case against Ray on March 25 during the case's second pre-trial conference. One condition of the dismissal was that neither party can take further legal action, meaning that Ray, who is African American, cannot file a civil suit against the University. According to Paul Messing, Ray's lawyer, there was no monetary settlement, and negotiations went "amicably." Ray's colleagues and friends -- who stood behind him and wrote letters of support to The Daily Pennsylvanian and Almanac, the University's journal of record -- were happy with the case's conclusion. "It's really unfortunate to see people who are hardworking and work over hours get caught in such a type of situation," Microbiology Professor David Boettiger said. College senior Teresa Cheng, who has worked with Ray in the University's computer graphics and photography shop for four years, says that Ray is also relieved by the University's action. "He's happy about [the dismissal]. That's all he wanted. He didn't want money out of it.? he just wanted it to be over with," Cheng said. "He doesn't have the money to go battle them in court for years and years." And Physics Professor Larry Gladney, chairperson of the African-American Resource Center's faculty advisory board, wrote a letter to Penn President Judith Rodin in support of Ray. Although Gladney said he is pleased with the dismissal of the charge against Ray, he added that he hoped University Police officers would learn a lesson from the incident. "In a University environment the situation is different than in a neighborhood where you might expect people to be hostile towards you," he said. "It requires a different response." University Police Chief Maureen Rush said a Penn investigation of the incident "found that the officers followed policy and procedures and no wrongdoing was found on their part."