SOUTH BEND — Prosecutor Michael Dvorak will not file criminal charges in a new case that has come to light involving a Saint Mary’s College student who alleged she was raped by a University of Notre Dame student in a campus residence hall.
“There was insufficient evidence with which to prosecute,” Dvorak said Thursday.
The case was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office Jan. 25 by Notre Dame Security Police. After careful review, Dvorak said, he and his staff determined there was not enough evidence for prosecution.
The woman claimed she was assaulted and the male student alleged the sexual activity was consensual, Dvorak said.
In an article published Thursday in the Chicago Tribune, the unnamed 19-year-old female student and her father were critical of the university’s response. They allege campus police were more interested in protecting the university than in helping the female student, and that police delayed interviewing the suspect and gathering other evidence.
The case is similar in some ways to another case in which Saint Mary’s student Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeberg alleged a Notre Dame football player touched her breasts Aug. 31 when they were alone in his dormitory room. She reported the alleged sexual battery to campus police and committed suicide 11 days later.
In this latest case, a Saint Mary’s student told police she was sexually assaulted in the early hours of Sept. 4 in a dorm room. The woman said she was “very intoxicated” and could not remember what happened in the room, according to the newspaper. Her friends found her with blood seeping through her denim shorts, the newspaper reported.
The female student returned to Saint Mary’s in the early hours of Sept. 4. Late that evening, after showering, the student went to a local hospital for a sexual assault exam, according to the newspaper.
A Notre Dame Security Police investigator and a victim advocate with S-O-S, the rape crisis agency for St. Joseph County, were called to the hospital to meet with the woman.
Police issued a campus alert on Sept. 6 to notify students a sexual assault had been reported and ran a background criminal check on the male student Sept. 7, according to the Chicago Tribune. The woman and her father claim police did nothing further until Sept. 10, when the father contacted them to ask about progress in the investigation, according to the newspaper. The suspect was questioned and agreed to provide a DNA sample.
Notre Dame officials declined to discuss specifics of the case.
“Sexual misconduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at Notre Dame,” the university said in a written response. The statement defended the professionalism and training of campus officers, saying they “thoroughly and professionally investigate every allegation of sexual misconduct in accord with the practices established by our county prosecutor and others in law enforcement.”
Students deserve certain degrees of privacy as part of the educational process and Notre Dame adheres to federal regulations that mandate privacy of student records, according to the statement.
“We regret that some are critical of our handling of sexual misconduct allegations, and we understand the pain these families are experiencing. At the same time, we stand behind the thoroughness, integrity and objectivity of our investigations, as well as the comprehensive services available to students who are subjected to sexual misconduct,” according to the statement.
St. Joseph County’s Special Victims Unit investigates cases of sexual assault in South Bend, Mishawaka and most unincorporated areas of the county.
Notre Dame and Indiana University South Bend police handle their own sexual assault investigations, although they notify and consult with SVU officers on such cases, Dvorak said.
There was nothing the campus police did or didn’t do in the handling of this case that would have altered the decision not to prosecute, Dvorak said. “I would be very critical of them if any of these delays had caused a different outcome,” he said.
Some evidence provided by other students who were with the young woman that night, including friends from Saint Mary’s, conflicted with details of her recollections, the prosecutor said.
The female student told the Chicago Tribune that she never told the police officer during her Sept. 4 initial interview that she didn’t want to pursue criminal charges.
“She was advised as to the availability of counseling services. She stated that at this time she does not wish to pursue criminal prosecution and/or administrative sanctions through Notre Dame’s residence life (office),” the officer wrote in the police report from Sept. 4, according to Dvorak.
Since Seeberg’s death, her parents have publicly criticized Notre Dame’s handling of the case, claiming police intentionally delayed interviewing the accused player and wouldn’t provide them details about their daughter’s case.
In the Seeberg case, Dvorak also made a decision not to prosecute.
“Sources said Notre Dame follows a countywide protocol that suggests officers wait about a week” to interview suspects in sexual assault cases, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.
That is not true, Dvorak said.
There is no countywide protocol that officers should wait a specific time period to interview a suspect, and each situation is handled on a case-by-case basis, the prosecutor said.
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an inquiry into Notre Dame’s handling of sex assault allegations.
Saint Mary’s College President Carol Ann Mooney was in college board of trustees meetings Thursday and not available for an interview, her office said.
“Saint Mary’s College has cooperated with the U.S. Department of Education inquiry. Saint Mary’s College administrators were interviewed as part of that investigation,” college spokeswoman Gwen O’Brien said in a statement. The college respects the confidentiality of its students and won’t discuss specific cases brought up in the media, she said.
