Man Guilty of Assault at Point Loma College

A La Mesa man was convicted Friday of assaulting a Point Loma Nazarene College student, making 25 obscene phone calls to women students and burglarizing six dormitory rooms.

After seven days of deliberations, a San Diego Superior Court jury acquitted Timothy O’Keefe, 32, of two felony sex charges in the Jan. 23 incident involving a woman student in her dorm room.

O’Keefe was found innocent of assault with intent to commit rape and attempted rape. Jurors said they didn’t think O’Keefe intended to rape the woman after removing her blankets and touching her at 3 a.m.

He was convicted of making 25 obscene calls to women students, possession of methamphetamine and prowling. Jurors deadlocked on a second prowling count involving entry into a second woman’s dorm room.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Robinson said O’Keefe faces 30 years in state prison if sentenced consecutively on each count.

Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes set sentencing for July 1. O’Keefe remains in County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Jury foreman David Mittleholtz said it wasn’t proven that O’Keefe had the intent to rape the woman when he approached her in her room.

“He didn’t use force. He wasn’t armed,” Mittleholtz said.

O’Keefe’s attorney, Michael Butler, argued for acquittal on many of the obscene-call counts, saying O’Keefe only breathed heavily and on some occasions did not even speak.

O’Keefe was arrested Jan. 30 after an investigation that centered on his visits to the college, where he was not a student.