Authorities Investigating ‘Date Rape’ Charge at USC

Los Angeles police and USC officials have opened investigations into an alleged “date rape” last December in which a 19-year-old student accused a 21-year-old fraternity member of sexual assault, officials said Friday.

Police questioned both the alleged victim and suspect on Thursday and will turn over their findings to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to determine whether criminal charges will be filed, Lt. Alan Kerstein of the LAPD’s Southwest Division said.

The suspect, a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, denied that sexual intercourse had occurred. He was released after questioning.

The allegation--the subject of the lead story in Friday’s edition of the Daily Trojan campus newspaper--will also be reviewed by a disciplinary panel made up of students, faculty and administrators, said Jim Dennis, USC’s vice president of student affairs.

It is the fourth report of a so-called “date rape” or “acquaintance rape” at USC since classes began in September, Dennis said, but the first in which the alleged victim has filed a formal complaint with police. Police are also investigating an alleged rape on campus in which the victim was attacked by a stranger in a campus residence hall.

In three previous disciplinary reviews for alleged acquaintance rapes, the panel “made findings of what we call harm, or threatening to harm” and ordered one-year suspensions of the accused male students, Dennis said. The panel did not confirm whether a rape had actually taken place, he said. “It’s very difficult for a university panel to determine whether a rape had occurred or not.”

The USC panel, which has the power to expel students, would reach its conclusions independent of the police investigation, Dennis said.

Kerstein said interviews with the woman, the fraternity member and other students indicated that the two had met Dec. 7 at the 901 Club, a saloon near the campus. “She indicated that she knew the suspect, had conversed with him in the past. There may have been a mild attraction,” Kerstein said.

The woman then accompanied him back to a room at the ATO house on Fraternity Row, Kerstein said. She told police that when she resisted his advances, he overpowered and raped her.

Kerstein said the passage of 4 1/2 months between the incident and the allegation made it “impossible” for police to obtain physical evidence.

The woman attributed the delay in notifying authorities to emotional trauma.