After announcing on Monday that there was no evidence a gang rape described in Rolling Stone magazine had actually occurred at a University of Virginia fraternity, a local police chief urged colleges to involve the police as quickly as possible when someone complains of a sexual assault.
While the case involving a student the magazine identified as “Jackie” has been suspended for lack of evidence, “that doesn’t mean that something terrible did not happen” to her that night in September 2012, Timothy J. Longo, chief of police in Charlottesville, Va., said during a news conference.
“We are just not able to gather sufficient facts to conclude what that something may have been.”
The accuser in the case declined to cooperate with the police, even after the magazine article, in November, described a brutal assault by seven men in an upstairs room at Phi Kappa Psi, Chief Longo said.
The article has since been widely discredited, and the magazine apologized after it said it had found “discrepancies” in the student’s account.
Chief Longo said that the accuser has the right to decline to answer questions in an investigation, but he said that makes it difficult to track down what, if anything, actually happened that night.
“Having police involvement early in these investigations is extremely important,” he said.
“With every second of every minute of every hour of every day, we lose evidence,” he said — physical and forensic clues that are key to cracking cases.
The police chief stressed the importance of having campus officials clearly explain to alleged victims what their options are, including the choice to go to law-enforcement agencies, and the importance of doing it quickly.
They should make clear, he said, that even if the accuser gives the police the OK to investigate, she doesn’t have to bring charges.
He said repeatedly during the news conference that the case, though suspended, would remain open in case someone comes forward with more information.
“We’re not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident consistent with the facts contained in that article occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house or any other fraternity house for that matter,” he said, but the case “is not closed by any stretch of the imagination.”
Closing the case, he said, “would be a disservice to ‘Jackie’ and to the university” which she, in the Rolling Stone article, had accused of failing to act on her complaints.
In a statement released Monday, the university’s president, Teresa A. Sullivan, said the investigation “confirms what federal privacy law prohibited the university from sharing last fall: that the university provided support and care to a student in need, including assistance in reporting potential criminal conduct to law enforcement.”
Campuses and Reporting
The reporting the police chief called for on Monday is consistent with legislation approved by both chambers of the Virginia legislature and awaiting the governor’s signature. The final bill is much less stringent than an earlier version of the legislation, which included a mandatory-reporting provision that would have required faculty members and administrators to notify the police within 24 hours if a student reported being assaulted.
The bill was amended after campus officials and victims’ rights groups complained that it could have a chilling effect on rape victims’ willingness to speak out.
The revised legislation, which Gov. Terry McAuliffe has until Sunday to sign, sets up a reporting chain that would ensure that complaints of sexual violence are promptly reported to a campus’s Title IX coordinator, then on to a campus review committee set up to investigate sexual-violence complaints. The committee, which has to meet within 72 hours of receiving the complaint, would review the matter and decide whether police should be notified.
Supporters of the legislation have said they want to be sure that allegations of sexual assault aren’t swept under the rug by colleges trying to protect their reputations
The bill requires that colleges “ensure that a victim of an alleged act of sexual violence is informed of the available law-enforcement options for investigation and prosecution; the importance of collection and preservation of evidence; the available options for a protective order; the available campus options for investigation and adjudication under the institution’s policies,” and the victim’s right to decide whether or not to participate in an investigation.
No one from the governor’s office was immediately available to comment on whether he is likely to sign the bill.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is conducting a review of the Rolling Stone article at the request of the magazine, which reportedly plans to publish it in the next few weeks.
Chief Longo said there was no evidence that the fraternity had a party the night the alleged rape occurred, and he said that at this point, there were no plans to charge “Jackie” with false reporting.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
