Students accused of assault enter probationary program

Two of the five students accused of assaulting a Princeton University debate team member in November officially entered probation programs en route to having the charges officially dropped against them, as ruled earlier this month. College sophomore Thomas Bispham and College freshman David Hochfelder began the program, called Advanced Rehabilitative Disposition, following a March 7 hearing at the Criminal Justice Center. The terms of the ARD include fines and an 18-month probationary period, according to James DeLeon, supervising judge of the criminal division of the municipal court, and District Attorney Richard Boyd. The students will each have to pay $1,250 in fines: $1,000 to the Philadelphia Victim's Compensation Fund and Domestic Violence Fund, and the other $250 will be payed in restitution. Half of this will go to the victim, Princeton student John Brantl, and the other half will be given to another individual who claims that her personal property was damaged, DeLeon and Boyd said. "The allegation, that neither I nor my client dispute, was that one of the boys trashed a number of [a female member of the Princeton debate team's] belongings," said Jeffrey Kolansky, attorney for Bispham. As part of the probation, the students will also have to enter an anger management program and attend alcohol counseling. The extent of this counseling has not yet been determined, DeLeon said. After the 18 months, if the students have successfully completed all the terms of the ARD, their criminal records will be expunged, and the charges will disappear without a guilty or not guilty plea. "They have to do their counseling and pay their money and that's it," Boyd said. "And they have to stay out of trouble." The two students were originally accused -- along with three other Penn students, College freshman Philip Balderston, Wharton sophomore Tavraj Banga and College senior Steven Stolk -- of assaulting Brantl in a lounge in the Quadrangle by pouring motor oil on him and threatening to light him on fire. In February, all criminal charges against the other three were dropped, and the misdemeanor charges that remained against Hochfelder and Bispham were remanded to ARD. According to Director Michele Goldfarb, the Office of Student Conduct has completed its investigations into all five students. Kolansky refused to divulge Bispham's punishment from the school. "I can't release that information," he explained. "It's only Tom's to release." The ARD program is a pre-probationary program designed to give first-time offenders accused of misdemeanor charges a chance to keep a clean record. Offenders enrolled in the program must complete the probation before going to trial on any charges, and if they successfully do so, the charges are expunged from their records. If an offender fails to complete the ARD program, the charges return to the judicial system for trial. "Most people complete" the ARD program, Boyd said, but he added that he did not know the exact ratios. The charges against the five originally included both misdemeanors and felonies -- recklessly endangering another person's life, felonious aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit a crime, among others. At the pre-trial hearing in February, the felony charges were dropped against all five students. Hochfelder's attorney would not return repeated phone calls for comment yesterday.