Student faces suspension in case of alleged rape by Amy Duschaneck Editor-in-Chief Fahima Depa Ahmed ’06 said she was raped on campus during the third week of classes in a statement she submitted to the Argus on Oct. 17. “The assailant is a male member of the class of 2006 and a friend I made during orientation,” she said. “I was passed out for most of the evening the rape occurred because I was exceedingly intoxicated. When I gained consciousness and realized that he was going to rape me, I asked him to stop and told him repeatedly that I was intoxicated.” According to Ahmed, the case was reported to Public Safety a week after it occurred. This resulted in the case being heard by the Student Judicial Board, and the accused perpetrator was suspended from Wesleyan for a year. Errol King ’06 denied the charges of rape brought against him. He does admit that he is guilty of a failure to comply with a restriction placed on him by the administration stating that he was not allowed to return to WestCo, the dorm where they both resided, in the interim between the accusation and the hearing. “All the other charges are bogus,” he said. “I don’t know why she’s doing this to me.” Representatives from the SJB refused to give the specifics of any case. The standard of proof in an SJB hearing is a fair preponderance of the evidence, or that a person was more likely than not in violation of the code, rather than beyond a reasonable doubt, a more rigid standard applied in the US judicial system. King stated that he was found in violation of student code three, sexual abuse, of which he denies any guilt and 14 that states “Members of the community are also expected to comply with requests made by University personnel acting within the capacity of their responsibilities.” “I was dumb in not calling the administration before going back to my room,” King said, explaining that he returned to his room in WestCo during the time he was banned from the dorm in order to get sheets so he could sleep and was screamed at by Ahmed. Ahmed expressed concern regarding the sentence placed upon King. “He is only suspended from the University for a year for a crime that is classified as a felony,” she said. King was accepting of the reasoning used by the SJB. “I think they went with the better safe than sorry technique in keeping me away so things could heal. There must be some feeling in their heads that I was innocent since I will be returning.” King is planning on returning to the University in fall 2004, but intends to use the mandatory time off to pursue creative endeavors in film and poetry. “Everything happens for a reason,” King said. “All the stress and pain of being wrongfully accused will pay off. This year off will allow me to become a better person and explore myself.” Ahmed, however, finds the concept of King returning to be horrifying. “How can I ‘start my healing process’ when he has the opportunity to return next fall and terrorize more Wesleyan women?” she said. She told of the emotional horrors that she was faced with as a result of this experience that resulted in her extreme discomfort at this decision by the SJB. “I was scared that he would hurt me again, that he would ostracize me, that no one would believe me…I have trouble interacting with people for long periods of time because I have trouble feeling physically and psychologically safe around others. It is near to impossible for me to spend long periods of time in my room because that is where it all began,” Ahmed said. King said that he found the University community very accepting of his situation. “I got more love than I thought I would,” he said. Dean of the College Freddye Hill addressed the concerns of WestCo residents in a mandatory dorm meeting regarding sexual assault held the evening of Oct. 7, prior to the SJB hearing. “If a person is assaulted it is our goal to make sure that that person feels safe and secure. We provide medical care, therapy and also get information about what happened.” Ahmed said that the University provided her with medical services from Davison Health Center and psychological services from the Office of Behavioral Sciences. “We need to do a better job of communicating information about sexual assault to first year students,” Hill said.

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