News Year in Review

The Barnard Assault
Compiled by Nina Lalli from articles by Alyson Dame and Sarah Miller-Davenport 

Five Arrested After Barnard Resident Assaulted

At 1:45 a.m. on March 17, a Barnard resident, senior Jeff Harvey, was assaulted by two masked strangers. Senior Ryan Catignani, sophomore Nicholas Walker, senior Richard Kocher and Markeith Reed were arrested on March 26 after interviews and Oberlin College ID record logs obtained from Security were collected by the Oberlin Police Department. 
When asked by police what might have motivated the attack, Oberlin Chief of Police Michael Moorman said, “The victim mentioned he’d written an article in the paper about Zechiel.” 
According to a police statement that includes an interview with Harvey, he was sleeping at 1:45 a.m. when he was awakened by a knock. Harvey reported that two men entered the room. One stood by the door while the other began to attack him. The attacker did not speak to Harvey during the assault. The attacker “grabbed at his face and scratched him,” according to the statement. 
In a follow-up interview, Harvey stated that one subject punched him five times in the face before the other subject pushed him into a wall. Harvey reported he was able to get to his feet and call for help, and the subjects fled.
According to the police report, the phone was disconnected. 
Senior Rebecca Adelman heard a male scream, “Help! Who are you?” and called security. Adelman was asleep when she and a friend woke up to the screams for help. 
A police report filed March 17 states that Oberlin Security received a call from Adelman at 1:49 a.m. “It sounded like there was a struggle, and there were people in the hallway. I called Security and I said I couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from,” Adelman said. 
Director of Safety and Security Robert Jones said, “The call came from Rebecca, she was not sure where screams were coming from at first. They went out and combed the area and couldn’t find anything.”
Later, Adelman’s guest decided the sound must have come from the neighboring room. “I called Security back, I kind of felt it was something they should look into,” Adelman said. 
The officers at the scene were told the new information. “They went back to investigate it and made contact with the victim,” Jones said. 
Oberlin Police Officer Steve Chapman “requested the entry card reader logs from Barnard and Zechiel Hall,” between midnight and 2:30 a.m. March 17, according to a report filed by Chapman. 
According to that report, Kocher’s OCID was used to enter Barnard at 1:42 a.m. March 17.
In an interview with police at 1 p.m. March 17, Kocher filed a report that his OCID was missing after the assault, and told Security it had been missing since Thursday, March 15, according to Jones. 
On March 22, Kocher was arrested for aggravated burglary and assault. A charge of obstructing justice was subsequently added. 
Walker was arrested and charged with complicity to aggravated burglary and complicity to assault. 

Evidence Points to Premeditation

According to the police report, “Walker stated that there were comments made by numerous individuals regarding the dislike for the victim and the articles he had written, in particular the football players were begrudged by the articles.” 
Harvey writes weekly humor columns for The Grape, and his last column before the assault was titled “Don’t Call It A Surprise When The Bullets Fly.” The article discussed the recent patterns of school shootings and compared athletes at Oberlin to criminals at other schools. 
Harvey wrote, “If the Oberlin community begins to open its eyes to the tragic plight of the athletes, then we might be able to avoid disaster, but chances are, it won’t,” and concluded, “don’t worry too much. Chances are when the shooting starts, then just like on the opposing football teams who face the Oberlin College Football Crimson Fighting Yeomen, no one will actually get hit. This just in, Jeff Harvey’s name has moved to the top of the ‘to shoot’ list.”
The police report states that Walker said that he witnessed Catignani twice say that the victim “needed to have his ‘ass kicked’,” on the night of March 16 in Catignani’s room in Zechiel Hall. Catignani was arrested for aggravated burglary and assault. 
Catignani was interviewed by police on March 26. According to the police report, “Catignani said that he and others were having ongoing discussions concerning the article written by [the victim].” 
In the same interview, Catignani admitted donning a mask and entering the victim’s room but “Catignani said he was kicked in the chest by Harvey and fled the room after realizing how frightened Harvey was.” 
According to the police report, Catignani maintained he had “no intention whatsoever of assaulting the victim,” and could not explain injuries to the victim or why his phone was disconnected.
Catignani, Kocher and Walker declined to comment.
Markeith Reed, a part-time employee at the bowling alley and former College student, was arrested for complicity to aggravated burglary and complicity to assault. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I found out bad things were happening, I left immediately,” Reed said. “The guys said they were going somewhere, I just kind of tagged along.” 
In an interview with Oberlin police on March 28, Reed stated that he had gone to Catignani’s dorm room and “he decided to leave Room 221 with Richard Kocher, Ryan Catignani and Nicholas Walker,” the police report said. 
Reed continued to work at Hales’ College Lanes. “We determined his continued employment at the bowling alley does not pose any threat to members of the community and consequently it seemed inappropriate to take any kind of action at this time,” Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said.
Jones said he did not think the incident puts the College in danger of additional attacks. “It appears to be a singular incident to me. It’s not just people going around attacking people randomly,” he said. 
Moorman also thought this was a planned attack on a specific person. “They planned to do this, they had masks on,” Moorman said.
Assistant Dean of Students Bill Stackman sent letters to two students summoning them to Judicial Board. “We need to gather information and feel that we have enough evidence,” Stackman said. 
Stackman was not willing to predict what the J-Board would decide, and said, “I have no idea what the sanctions will be.” 
Goldsmith and College President Nancy Dye wrote a letter to the Review expressing their concern about the incident. “Obviously, it’s very disturbing to think of a student attacked while asleep in the residence hall room and we will always take a behavior like that very, very seriously,” Goldsmith said. 
Stackman said, “We’re certainly taking this very seriously and would like to have this issue addressed as soon as possible.”
Adelman was upset at the manner in which the administration handled the issue. After making the call, “I didn’t really know what was going on until I got an e-mail [April 3] from Bill Stackman,” she said. The e-mail was to the alleged attackers but Adelman received a carbon copy. 
“They know that I’m the person that called Security, and that makes me uncomfortable,” she said.
A press release from OPD released March 26 states, “The incident is still under investigation due to possible involvement of others in misleading the Police Department during the investigation.” 
On April 3, senior Stacey Beck, girlfriend of Catignani, was arrested for falsification after she provided an alibi for Catignani, Kocher, Walker and Reed. According to a police report, Beck said all four were in Zeke between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on March 17. 
“There were several individuals that gave us inaccurate information,” Moorman said, adding, “It’s one thing to say ‘I don’t know anything about it,’ but there’s a difference between that and misleading the police.”
Moorman said the investigation might still continue, but that the county prosecutor would make that decision. “This isn’t a super-serious incident compared to everything else the county prosecutor gets, but on the other hand, it wasn’t a prank,” Moorman said.

First Community Board Decision Overturned

Monday, April 30, the College Community Board overturned its previous decision to expel the students found responsible for the assault in Barnard. 
At a hearing the last week of April, the Community Board, made up of three faculty members and two students, expelled Catignani and Kocher and suspended Walker. Catignani, Kocher and Walker were given the right to appeal the sanctions, and five new Community Board members reviewed the case on Monday. 
Students are allowed to appeal the Community Board’s sanctions for one or all of three reasons: on the basis of new evidence, on the claim that the process was unfair or with the assertion that the punishment was too severe.
The new sentence forbade Catignani and Kocher from returning to campus during the school years 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 and suspended their diplomas during those two years. Both were second semester seniors. They were allowed to remain on campus during the appeals process, complete their Spring 2001 courses and continue to work and receive paychecks from the College. 
The decision to overturn the original decision came as a shock to many members of the Oberlin community, with few more upset than Harvey, the victim. 
Harvey heard the news second-hand and was notified by Goldsmith.
Although surprised by the board’s decision, Harvey said, “From the beginning I had doubts about any system where they get two appeals and I get none. The whole judicial process is geared toward cheating and minor offenses.”
Other students were dismayed by the Community Board’s leniency. “I think that outside the context of Oberlin, this incident would be taken more seriously. The Community Board’s decision was irresponsible and it sends the message that this kind of behavior, criminal behavior, is acceptable at Oberlin,” senior Laura Paley said.
Despite Harvey’s and other students’ criticism, Stackman insisted the administration reacted with expediency after becoming aware of the assault. 
A police report was filed Saturday March 17, the day of the attack, and Stackman started investigating the situation on March 19, having been away for the weekend. 
“On my part, I couldn’t have moved more aggressively than I did. I felt that this was extremely serious,” Stackman said.
Goldsmith explained why the students continued to attend classes as usual. “A judgement would be made about whether their continuing staying on campus poses a significant risk to others on campus,” he said.
Goldsmith said that, because students who are asked to leave campus while Community Board reviews their cases lose that class time regardless of the outcome, “the College would have to have a very good reason to forbid a student to attend classes while an appeal is pending.”
The incident was also handled in criminal court. Catignani, Kocher and Walker were first sent to the Oberlin Municipal Court and, because they are being charged with felonies, their cases were all bound over to Lorain County Common Pleas Court. Catignani and Kocher were charged with aggravated burglary and assault, while Walker is being charged with complicity to aggravated burglary and assault. None of their cases have been presented before a grand jury yet. 
Harvey continued to write the humor column for The Grape that allegedly sparked the assault. Harvey said Stackman advised him not to write anything inflammatory. He said in May that while the student body has generally been supportive, the administration’s reaction has made him uncomfortable. “The fact that they’re still on campus means for me that the issue has no closure.” It has also made him question the College’s priorities. “If unlawful entry and assault aren’t grounds for expulsion, then I don’t know what is,” Harvey said.
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