Police say student lied about rape

http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/15753757.html

The ISU sophomore was somewhere else at the time of the alleged attack, campus officers say.

By STACI HUPP Register Staff Writer 08/31/2001

Ames, Ia . - An Iowa State University student who told police she was kidnapped and gang raped this week made up the story, officials said Thursday.

Police did not identify the sophomore. She has not been charged with a crime.

Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes will make that decision today. Filing a false police report is punishable by up to a year in jail.

A friend of the woman called campus police about 2 p.m. Tuesday and said the woman had been forced into a car at gunpoint on campus three hours earlier. The alleged victim later told police she was taken to a wooded area on campus, forced to have sex with four men and released.

Officers determined the woman was somewhere else at the time she claimed the kidnapping and rape took place. Investigators said other parts of her story didn't jibe. They declined to elaborate.

"It was clear to us by this morning that those incidents simply did not happen," Capt. Gene Deisinger of ISU's public safety department said Thursday. "I don't know why she did it."

The woman had pointed out a wooded area on campus where she said the men raped her, police said. A search turned up nothing. She also told police the men had struck her head with a gun. Deisinger said no injuries were visible.

She described the gunman as a 250-pound black man wearing wire-rimmed glasses. Police said they interviewed several men Wednesday but could not identify a possible suspect.

The woman agreed to a medical examination at the ISU Student Health Center. Officials would not disclose results.

County Attorney Holmes said Thursday he expects to decide today whether charges are appropriate. He said he needed to learn more about the case from campus police.

The allegations were "a frightening thing for the community," including faculty, staff, students and parents, Capt. Deisinger said.

Some African-American students were angered by the news Thursday.

"As a black male, I'm offended," said Robert Price, 20, an ISU senior from New Orleans and a member of the Black Student Alliance.

"If people put out false allegations of false crimes, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. She pinpointed black males because in her head was a stereotype that black males commit violent crime in society."