Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990 TAG: 9003222755
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Seven university students have told campus or Radford city police that they have been attacked or threatened by men - on campus, on the streets of Radford and in their apartments. Two of them said they were raped.
Female students are scared. Rumors abound on campus of attacks and rapists on the loose.
"I never go to the library at night anymore," said Judy Maltby, a 20-year-old student who lives off campus. "Everyone's talking about it."
Some students say they are angry and city police investigators say they are annoyed because two reported attacks on campus last month were kept quiet by the university.
University officials say city police and FIRST OF A THREE-PART SERIES students always are told about reported attacks on campus, unless they are proved to be untrue. Verified information is never withheld, said Dean of Students Bonnie Hurlburt.
So far this year, these incidents have been reported to campus or city police:
On Jan. 8, a student said she awoke that morning in her off-campus apartment to find a man standing in her bedroom. He fled.
The next day, another student said a man broke into her apartment near campus that morning and raped her.
Five days later, another student told city police she was walking along a street when she was attacked and dragged to a nearby car. She kicked and screamed and her assailant fled.
Vernell Johnson, 17, of Christiansburg was arrested Jan. 18 and charged with those three assaults and an attack on a Christiansburg woman. He was indicted Monday by a Radford grand jury. But attacks continued after Johnson's arrest and confinement at the New River Valley Juvenile Detention Home.
On Feb. 10, a student told campus police that as she was walking home at 1:30 that morning between Walker and Norwood halls she was dragged to the ground and raped.
A week later, a student said she awoke in her apartment near campus when a man wearing a ski mask began choking her. She kicked and screamed and the man fled.
The same day, another student said she was approached by two men wearing ski masks as she got out of her car at the Highland Village Apartments parking lot near campus. One of the men tried to force her back into the car. She screamed and they fled.
A week later, a student told campus police that she awoke in her dormitory room to find a paper towel smelling of machine oil draped over her face and a man she didn't recognize leaving the room.
University police say they have no description of the man involved in the reported Feb. 10 rape, which is still being investigated. City police say one of the men wearing the ski masks was described only as 5 feet 10, 200 pounds, wearing black clothes.
Students have been warned by university and local police to walk in pairs and take precautions.
During the previous three years, students had reported no sexual assaults to campus police. The college was listed as the fifth safest in the nation last year, according to a survey based on FBI crime reports.
But Maltby, the off-campus student, and others say there is more to their fear than just the threat of being raped.
"The rumors make it worse," Maltby said, standing outside the library late one afternoon clutching books and talking to a reporter on her way home after studying.
Maltby said no one knew if the rumors were true, "but it's still something that you really have to look out for and you can't take lightly."
The larger problem, students and city police say, is that two of the rumors - about the on-campus incidents reported Feb. 10 and 24 - were true, but the university kept a lid on them.
City police said information about attacks reported to campus police might have helped their investigation of reports by two students who were attacked in separate incidents near campus on Feb. 17.
Radford Lt. Jackie Roop said he had heard rumors, but knew nothing about the two on-campus reports.
Roop said university police never told him about the reported Feb. 24 incident and he didn't know about the Feb. 10 rape until two weeks after it was reported. "I called to ask about something else and they told me then," he said.
City police didn't learn of the Feb. 24 incident until they read about it in The Tartan, a student newspaper.
"It's jeopardizing people's lives," Roop said, if a reported attack or rape is not made public.
Communication and the sharing of information between the university and the city police is vital, Roop said, especially if both departments may be seeking the same suspect.
"The more people on the street looking for suspects, the better the chances of getting him," Roop said.
An angry editorial in The Tartan berated the university for withholding information about the two attacks in February.
"If rapes are reported, the public must be informed before the culprit is in custody, not after," said the March 1 editorial. "That is like locking the barn door after all the animals are out."
University officials say information is sometimes withheld to protect the victim's right to privacy or to avoid jeopardizing an investigation.
Hurlburt, the dean of students, said reports sometimes must be investigated before they can be made public. "It's not a question of covering up," she said. "It's a question of investigating enough to know whether to release" information about a reported attack.
She said the early release of information can be misleading if the report turns out to be invalid.
"Everybody may not agree with that, but that's our policy," she said.
University police Director Toby Phillips said students weren't told of the February reports but a city police investigator was told about the reported Feb. 10 rape.
When asked about that, Radford Police Chief A.C. Earles shook his head and said, "We know nothing about it." And a number of students who were interviewed also said they knew nothing about the rape, but should have bee told.
In late February, when a reporter had asked Phillips whether rumored attacks on campus were true, he said there had been no attacks.
Phillips explained later that he must have misunderstood the question the first time because it was asked more than a week after the Feb. 10 rape was reported.
"We don't want to withhold information," he said.
Earles, other Radford police and some students say they think the university may have kept reports of attacks quiet to protect the school's safe-campus image.
Hurlburt says that's not true.
"I understand there is a perception [among the public] of the university to cover up, but that is not the case," she said.
A bill passed by the General Assembly March 9 is intended to require public colleges and universities to disclose information about violent crimes on their campuses.
bill, introduced by Sen. Moody Stallings Jr., D-Virginia Beach, would require state-supported schools to report to state police all assaults, sexual assaults or homicides that happen on school property. Reports also must be made available to the General Assembly and any party who requests it.
Radford investigators say such information needs to be public so students and residents can take precautions, such as not walking alone at night.
Radford Police Sgt. Gary Harmon said withholding information about reported attacks - whether they've been proved true or not - "may very well cause somebody their life or some serious damage."
Radford Chief Earles said the university in recent years has used its low crime rate to attract students.
"And I don't blame them. We like to tout, too," he said. But when it comes to reports of rape, "you're better off alerting the public. If it is happening, you need public support, you need public assistance. You've got to let them know."
Memo: part 1 of 3