UWS sexual assault case under investigation
4/5/2010
By Laura Podgornik
For 91.3 KUWS
The alleged sexual assault took place in Ostrander hall in the early hours of Thurs., March 4.
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is investigating its first report of sexual assault on campus since 2008.
Police report the alleged assault occurred following a night of dancing at Stargate Nightclub in Superior. The students hadn’t seen each other at the club, they ran into each other back in a dormitory stairwell on the UW-Superior campus. This was in the early morning hours of Thursday, March 4. The female student reported that the male student seemed highly intoxicated and she offered him a ride back to his dorm in Ostrander Hall, where the assault allegedly occurred.
Superior Police Sergeant of Investigation Rick Hughes says that sexual assault cases in Superior are commonly reported by people 18 to 24 years old. Hughes says these cases usually also involve alcohol.
“Typically that’s what we deal with. I mean, we’ve had the other kind too. I mean the very serious, you know, violent sexual assault types of cases but typically it’s the, you know, the college age out at the bars, meeting friends or meeting someone through a friend, going back to house parties or dorms or apartments and things are fine to start with but then it goes too far,” said Hughes.
The woman, whose name isn’t being released, told police she entered the man’s dorm room but did not intend to engage in sexual activity. Following the assault, the young woman went to the hospital and filed an anonymous report. Hughes says a few days later, she came to police.
Police interviewed both parties and conducted an investigation while coordinating with UW-Superior Campus Safety. The case was then turned over to the District Attorney’s Office. Attorney James Boughner says the case is still under investigation, although police say it lacks the evidence for prosecution. Hughes says sexual assault cases are among the most difficult to prove.
“We get one story from the victim that it went to this point and I told the person ‘No’ or to stop and then when you go talk to the suspect, it’s like ‘no it was consensual’ and ‘so she did say no I stopped’ and you know things like that. So you’ve got what they typically call the ‘he said she said.’ These two were the only two there. We don’t have any way to prove otherwise. So, it typically just makes it really difficult for the District Attorney’s Office to have a solid case in those situations. And a lot of times it might be something be plea bargained down in some kind of a deal in the ones they do end of charging out to some extent,” said Hughes.
The assault is one of ten cases of sexual assault reported to Campus Safety since 2004. None of these ten have been prosecuted.
Police report the alleged assault occurred following a night of dancing at Stargate Nightclub in Superior. The students hadn’t seen each other at the club, they ran into each other back in a dormitory stairwell on the UW-Superior campus. This was in the early morning hours of Thursday, March 4. The female student reported that the male student seemed highly intoxicated and she offered him a ride back to his dorm in Ostrander Hall, where the assault allegedly occurred.
Superior Police Sergeant of Investigation Rick Hughes says that sexual assault cases in Superior are commonly reported by people 18 to 24 years old. Hughes says these cases usually also involve alcohol.
“Typically that’s what we deal with. I mean, we’ve had the other kind too. I mean the very serious, you know, violent sexual assault types of cases but typically it’s the, you know, the college age out at the bars, meeting friends or meeting someone through a friend, going back to house parties or dorms or apartments and things are fine to start with but then it goes too far,” said Hughes.
The woman, whose name isn’t being released, told police she entered the man’s dorm room but did not intend to engage in sexual activity. Following the assault, the young woman went to the hospital and filed an anonymous report. Hughes says a few days later, she came to police.
Police interviewed both parties and conducted an investigation while coordinating with UW-Superior Campus Safety. The case was then turned over to the District Attorney’s Office. Attorney James Boughner says the case is still under investigation, although police say it lacks the evidence for prosecution. Hughes says sexual assault cases are among the most difficult to prove.
“We get one story from the victim that it went to this point and I told the person ‘No’ or to stop and then when you go talk to the suspect, it’s like ‘no it was consensual’ and ‘so she did say no I stopped’ and you know things like that. So you’ve got what they typically call the ‘he said she said.’ These two were the only two there. We don’t have any way to prove otherwise. So, it typically just makes it really difficult for the District Attorney’s Office to have a solid case in those situations. And a lot of times it might be something be plea bargained down in some kind of a deal in the ones they do end of charging out to some extent,” said Hughes.
The assault is one of ten cases of sexual assault reported to Campus Safety since 2004. None of these ten have been prosecuted.
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