A student who reported to University Police that he had been assaulted and robbed outside of King Hall in February admitted on Wednesday that he lied about the incident in an attempt to cover up a beating he endured while intoxicated earlier that night.
“We kind of take those things personally, when such a big offense happens on campus,” University Police Deputy Chief James Fitch said. “We like to think that those things don’t happen here, and when they do, we take them personally.”
When police received the report through the Student Health Center, they immediately began an investigation into the incident, using descriptions provided by student to search for potential suspects.
But as the investigation unfolded, Fitch said the information provided and the facts uncovered didn’t seem to match up.
“Throughout the investigation, things weren’t adding up,” Fitch said. “So we finally got him in here and after interviewing him, he admitted that he had basically become intoxicated that night. All he remembered the next day was that he got beat up, so he made up the story to explain that.”
After the student cooperated with police and confessed that he had given a false report, Fitch said the department chose not to press charges.
“The more we got into it the more we started to suspect that everything wasn’t as it seemed,” Fitch said. “Our main concern is that the robbery did not occur and all is well.”
While false reports aren’t common occurrences, Fitch said they often occur when a student lies to police to avoid facing repercussions from parents.
“It was a made up story, probably to explain to his parents why he was in the condition he was in,” Fitch said. “Especially with students, you have mom and dad are going to get mad, so you’ve got to have an explanation. He didn’t tell us [what really happened], but we know that an offense didn’t happen on campus.”