Rape on campus

Her name is Jamie, and freshman year at Ohio State, she lived in Baker hall, where Jeremy Goldstein lived too. Jamie says she and Jeremy had never even kissed, but she says one night as she was getting ready to go to a party with him, Jeremy suddenly attacked her.

Jamie: He was laying on top of me.  And holding me, holding my arms.  He could hold both of my arms with his one arm, so he could use his other arm to get his clothes off and try and take my clothes off.  And I struggled.  And he was, like, laying on my legs, too, so like, I couldn’t really kick him.

Jamie says Jeremy pulled down her pants, talking to her all the while.

Jamie: [He said] “You want me and you know you want this.” 

And I was like, “No, Jeremy, I don’t.  This is not what I want.” 

He’s like, “Yes, you do.”  I was like, “No, it’s not.”*

Like Stacy, Jamie says Jeremy bit her neck and ears and penetrated her with his hand. She says he tried to have intercourse with her but was unable. The next day, Jamie reported the incident to her resident advisor. She also filed a police report, but decided not to press charges. She says she didn’t want to go through the ordeal of a trial, and she didn’t push to have Jeremy expelled, but she did want officials to get him away from her.

Jamie: I wanted action taken as soon as they could get it done.  And I wanted him out of the dorm.  I didn’t wanna have to see him.

Dorm officials met with Jeremy and Jamie and determined that Jeremy was responsible for sexual misconduct he was put on disciplinary probation— and was moved to another co-ed dorm right next door.

That’s where Stacy says Jeremy assaulted her just three weeks later.

And soon, there was another complaint — one filed by three women a few weeks after Stacy says she was raped. “He got close to my face pointing at me and pushing me, calling me all those nasty names,” reported one student. “He pushed me against the wall.” wrote another. A third was the most blunt: “This guy should not be around any of the girls on this floor, and for that matter guys either... It’s not safe.”

Soon after those reports, Ohio State officials did remove Jeremy from university housing on a drinking violation. He moved into an apartment building just off campus and he was still free to go to classes, to parties and into many Ohio state dorms.

And that’s how things stayed for the next year and a half until Stacy’s junior year. She says the whole time, she lived in fear of her classmate Jeremy Goldstein.

Stacy: Terrified. Peeking your head in front of every corner. At the start of a new quarter, “Oh my gosh, do I have class with him? Where does he live?” And walking on one side of the street just because you think he probably is walking on the other.

Stacy has sued Ohio State, arguing the school should have moved more quickly to expel him. University officials declined our repeated requests for an on camera interview. But in court papers responding to Stacy’s lawsuit, they say they did nothing wrong.

University officials point out that Jamie never asked to have Jeremy expelled. And they say it was Stacy, not them, who decided to delay the school hearing so it wouldn’t interfere with the criminal proceedings. They say it was difficult to assess the credibility of both young women because Stacy acknowledged that previous sexual encounter with Jeremy, and Jamie said she’d gone to a party with Jeremy just after the alleged attack.

And campus officials point out that in the end they did take decisive action against Jeremy Goldstein.

On September 23, 2003 a year and a half after Stacy and Jamie reported being sexually assaulted by Jeremy Goldstein, and with a criminal rape charge pending, a one-day hearing was held at the university judicial affairs office. That same week, he was expelled from Ohio State.

Kotb: Essentially they did everything they could cause, they expelled him and that’s the most they can do. Isn’t that enough?

Stacy: Too little, too late. Ohio State could have prevented this.

Prevented it, Stacy says, by taking stronger action against Jeremy after the first sexual assault allegation.

Daniel Carter, vice president of victims rights group Security on Campus: It’s offensive. And it’s dangerous. And it’s something that if parents recognized was going on, they would be demand they would be up in arms demanding changes.

Daniel Carter has helped Stacy and raise complaints about their universities with the U.S. department of education. He says many schools try to keep rape allegations very quiet.

Carter: A college or university often times is very afraid of what will happen to their enrollment, questions from parents:  questions from contributors. It looks bad for the college.

Sheldon Steinback, lawyer at American Council on Education: I don’t think universities are in anyway looking to conceal what’s happening on campus.

Steinback, a top lawyer at the American council on education which represents universities across the country, did not comment on the Ohio state case, but he says in general, it’s important to remember how difficult it is for universities to get to the bottom of acquaintance rape allegations. Often, both the accused and the accuser have been drinking.

Steinback: When only two people are in a room and there isn’t any physical evidence, that would dramatically demonstrate what has transpired, it is very hard to move forward..

Kotb: When someone is found responsible of sexual misconduct, why don’t they just kick them out of school like that?

Steinback: In many instances they do.

Kotb: Well, in some they don’t.

Steinback: People’s assessment of what is just and fair, in many instances that’s in the eyes of the beholder.

And universities are concerned not just about the victim’s rights, but also about the rights of students who could be falsely accused.

Steinback: They are both their students and they have a moral and legal responsibility to both students.

As for Jeremy Goldstein, he denies he raped Stacy and he denies the allegations made against him by the other women at Ohio State.

But last year, he pleaded guilty in Stacy’s case to sexual imposition, a misdemeanor described in the state code as having sex when “the offender knows that the sexual contact is offensive to the other person” or when the other person is so impaired she can’t appraise the situation.

Following state guidelines, the judge sentenced to Jeremy to two years probation, and ordered him to undergo an evaluation for sexual aggression.

But that’s not quite the end of the Jeremy Goldstein case. In fact, this story ends where it began, on a co-ed college campus.

In 2004, Jeremy applied, and was accepted, to Bernard Baruch College in New York City.

Officials at Ohio State told dateline the transcripts OSU sent to Jeremy’s new school included no information about his expulsion, or about the reports filed against him by female students. They say OSU’s policy is not to release disciplinary records unless the school receives a specific inquiry.

Kotb: You know Jeremy Goldstein is in college in NY. Do you think about him, what he’s doing?

Stacy: Scares me because in my mind it’s a whole new batch of women that don't know him or his history.

Stacy’s lawsuit against Ohio State is still pending. She has now transferred to Kent State University, and expects to graduate in the spring.

The University of Virginia, where Annie went to school, has now strengthened its policies against sexual assault on campus.

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