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Trinity College Issues Statement On March Assault

By Jeff Cohen

May 22, 2012

You’ll recall the assault earlier this year of a Trinity College student. It stirred up a lot of emotion.

Now that the school year is done, Trinity has issued a statement. It doesn’t say much. But here it is.

HARTFORD, CT, May 22, 2012 – In the past few weeks, Trinity has received periodic questions and seen several news stories about the assault of a Trinity student on March 4. As the school year has come to a close, we believe it is timely to provide an update fromTrinity.

First, given that this assault occurred on public property, the investigation is the jurisdiction of the Hartford Police Department, with whom we have been working cooperatively since the moment of the assault. The College makes regular contact with HPD for updates on the assault, including last week.

As of this moment, there is nothing new to report about the investigation or its outcome. A Trinity student was seriously beaten, and we stand behind police efforts to determine who perpetrated this attack. If and when the alleged perpetrators are identified and charged, we support their prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

Hartford Police Chief James Rovella issued the following to us, for inclusion in today’s statement: “The investigation is going slowly and we are keeping all avenues open.”

Questions have been raised regarding information that was communicated soon after the assault. Let us underscore what the College representatives have said publically: in the hours after the assault, there was conflicting information about possible suspects, and information was communicated that had not been verified. This was an error that we have previously acknowledged.

Trinity College has an intense interest in the completion of the police investigation. While the Hartford Police Department must be the authoritative source of any information aboutthis case, please be assured that Trinity will communicate what we know about this case as soon as we are informed.

Trinity President James F. Jones, Jr., summarized the College’s position: “Trinity is genuinely interested in, and committed to, keeping the lines of communication open with both our College community and the community at large. We appreciate and value our location in Hartford and the benefits we realize of mutual cooperation, enrichment and understanding.”