Students Spend Time Behind Bars for Unusual Crimes

In addition to more routine incidents of crime such as thefts and acts of vandalism, the 1997-98 school year saw a number of uncommon campus crimes involving students as victims as well as perpetrators.

On May 18, a Currier House woman awoke to find a stranger lying on top of her. According to a Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) report, the man tried to kiss the woman before she escaped from him.

In March and again in early May undergraduates were assaulted while walking along a marked "safe" path next to Leverett House.

But perhaps the most unusual component of the past year's criminal activity was the increased number of Harvard students who found themselves the subjects of criminal inquiry.

The arrest of Joshua M. Elster '00 on charges of allegedly raping and assaulting a fellow student (please see related story, this page) prompted spirited responses from the community, which called for greater rape awareness.

Other students faced less serious charges including four students arrested for smashing a parking meter, two students arrested for procuring alcohol using false identification, and three students arrested for throwing rocks off the top of a Mass. Ave. building.

Four Students vs. Parking Meter

In the early morning hours of Oct. 11, four Harvard students were stopped by the HUPD at the intersection of Bow and Plympton Streets for smashing a parking meter on the curb, according to the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) blotter.

Because parking meters are under the city's jurisdiction, HUPD turned the case over to the CPD. The students, Gregory E. Curvall '99, Ian S. Rice '98, Ryan P. Korinke '99, Russell T. Hancock '99, were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and malicious destruction, according to the CPD blotter.

An unidentified neighbor reportedly saw the students vandalizing the property and called HUPD, according to Bernard A. Flynn, assistant director for parking for the city of Cambridge.

The four students were arraigned in court the following Tuesday where each was sentenced to 150 hours of community service to be completed within the next three months, said Brian Heffron, spokesperson for the Middlesex County District Attorney's office.

The judge specified that the students had to fulfill their community service hours by tutoring under-privileged children in Cambridge.

The students also had to pay to replace the parking meter, which cost approximately $700, according to Heffron.

Heffron said the charges against the students would likely be dropped before the students graduate provided they "stay out of trouble" until then.

Cops in Shops, Students in Jail

On Nov. 21, two underage first-year students were arrested for transporting alcohol which they procured using false identification. The arrests were made as a result of the CPD's new "Cops in Shops" program.

The "Cops in Shops" program places plainclothes police officers in liquor stores posing as store clerks, shelf stockers or customers. Undercover officers are also located outside of liquor stores.

One of the arrested students said he bought three 12 packs of beer at the L'il Peach at 1105 Mass. Ave. using a 25-year-old's ID while the other student waited outside.

The students were about 20 feet from the front of the store when three uniformed police officers stopped them, according to the student who bought the alcohol.

The two students were handcuffed, placed in a holding cell at the CPD for about an hour, and then released after their parents posted bail, the same student said.

At their Nov. 24 arraignment, the two students pled guilty to the charges filed by the state. Neither student had legal representation.

The student who purchased the alcohol had his driver's license suspended and was ordered to pay a $285 fine. The student who waited outside the liquor store was ordered to pay a $50 fine.

"Cops in Shops," which operates in 38 states, is coordinated nationally by the Century Council, a non-profit organization funded by alcohol distillers to combat alcohol abuse, said Carolyn W. Gasper, public relations manager for the council.

Harvard officials including representatives from the Dean of Students' office as well as the HUPD were involved in planning the Cambridge incarnation of "Cops in Shops" and encouraged its success, said Cambridge License Commission Executive Officer Richard V. Scali.

The "Cops in Shops" program yielded seven arrests during its first weekend on Nov. 21 and 22, Scali said.

Rocks Sink Crew Team

At the end of spring break, three members of the Harvard varsity heavyweight crew team were arrested by the HUPD for throwing rocks off the roof of a building located at 1280 Mass. Ave. The students admitted they were intoxicated at the time.

The HUPD turned over a report of the incident to the University. After appearing in front of the Administrative Board, the three students were forced to withdraw for a year at the end of the spring semester.

In addition, the students were not allowed to remain on the heavyweight crew team, which was undefeated at the time of the decision and favored to win the Eastern Sprints, the most prestigious spring race for East Coast crews.

Last month, the varsity heavyweight crew team, minus Dipanjan Banerjee '98, Samuel W. Brooks '00 and Connor P. Spreng '98, competed in Sprints and finished second, defeated by the fourth-seeded University of Pennsylvania by only six-tenths of a second.

Two of the rowers said that, although they expected the possibility of being asked to withdraw, they thought the Ad Board's decision to remove them from the team hurt their innocent teammates and coach unnecessarily.

"I accept responsibility for [my] stupidity," said one of the rowers. "I do not accept responsibility for doing this to the people I respect the most."