He touched her, but she never said “no.”

Casey Hammon, then a 19-year-old freshman, exchanged e-mails with a man she met in Los Angeles. A few months later, he came to visit her and her roommate at Chapman. Feeling comfortable enough with him, she invited him to stay the night in her Chapman dorm room.

But when her roommate left to make a call to her mother, he made his move.

The man lay next to Hammon and began touching her in a sexual way that left her feeling violated. She never said no, but she pretended to fall asleep until he stopped.

The man does not go to Chapman, and he never had intercourse with Hammon, so she didn’t report it. She still has not.

“I can’t help but blame myself,” said Hammon, who is now a junior. “I didn’t think there was anything to report. It wasn’t that he had forced me.”

Many young men and women find their experiences of sexual assault, attempted rape and rape fall in a grey area, making it difficult to decide to report the incidents. This academic year, Chapman has seen an increase in reports to Public Safety, but the number remains low.
.
Although the University has a list of actions to deal with reports of sexual assault and rape, there is also an informal set of procedures aimed at empowering students to come forward. These actions deal mostly with those students who find themselves in the grey area.

“I haven’t put a name to it, but it was just wrong,” Hammon said.

This year, three sexual assaults have been reported in resident halls. The first incident reported occurred Sept. 29 when a female student accused sophomore Joshua Becerra of sex crimes inside Sandhu Residence Hall.

Becerra is awaiting trial on three misdemeanors: Assault, battery and false imprisonment, said Kal Kaliban, deputy district attorney.

Becerra declined to comment on the issue.

Public Safety received another report of sexual assault after the Dec. 17 on-campus Undie Run after-party. The female student spoke to the police and completed a rape kit, but said she was intoxicated and unable to name her attacker. Police do not have any leads.

The third assault was reported on March 31, but allegedly took place on Nov. 21. The woman claimed she blacked out after consuming too much alcohol and was sexually assaulted in her dorm room.

In a 2007 report for the National Institute of Justice, a study found that 13.7 percent of undergraduate women were victims of at least one sexual assault since entering college, 7.8 percent of whom were women who were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The same report indicated about 673,000 of 6 million college women were raped, and only about 12 percent reported the incident.

Students in Chapman’s Creating a Rape Free Environment for Students (C.A.R.E.S.) group explore the idea that the world operates in a rape culture, said Dani Smith, director of PEER education and C.A.R.E.S.

Rape isn’t about sex. Sexual assault, including rape, is about power, vulnerability and often a false sense of entitlement, Smith said.

“You want [those who have been sexually assaulted] to have their power back,” Smith said.

Reports of suspected sexual assault are sometimes handled within the University.

“If we believe this person is a threat then we have to take action,” said Jerry Price, vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students, about students accused of violent crimes.

However, if the case is an isolated incident, it will come to an informal resolution such as moving students within the dorms or changing classes, he said.

This way, the victim does not have to complete police reports or rape kits and can simply remain physically distant from the alleged perpetrator.

The University, however, is not the justice system, said Price.

There are no set consequences or guidelines for sanctioning those who have been accused of a sexual crime because the University approaches each case individually. Price plans on re-organizing Chapman’s policy to make a minimum level of sanctions required for those deemed guilty of sexual or violent crimes.

“Every single case is its own little snowflake and we have to treat it appropriately,” Price said.

Price thinks that any report made to him or Smith should be investigated and he usually talks to each accused person individually.

“A woman’s report alone should be enough to proceed,” Price said. “If we put that burden [of providing evidence] on women, what would that evidence be?”

Although the accused person may never admit to the suspected crimes, it is important that he or she knows the alleged actions are unjust and are on the University’s radar, Price said.

“My hope is there is a greater chance that they’re going to change their behavior,” Price said.

Most importantly, he hopes that more students will be encouraged to come forward if they are not forced to make formal reports.

“At least the student is telling someone, which is a big step for a lot of people,” Hammon said.
The official Chapman policy reflects this idea as well.

There are three ways to file a report on sexual assault according to Chapman’s policy. A victim can file only a police report, which can be made directly to the Orange Police Department, and complete a rape kit. The case is filed as an anonymous report for Public Safety’s statistics.

Another option is to file a report only with Public Safety. The majority of cases are filed anonymously and victims do not continue with the prosecution process, said Capt. Joseph White.

Public Safety is not required to report to the police.

Reporting the incident to Public Safety allows the survivor to be interviewed by an officer of the same gender and allows for immediate legal and medical action, White said.

The final option for students is to file a report with Public Safety and the police.

Students are given the option to exclude their names in their reports, which the policy says prevents the name from becoming a “matter of public record.”

However, laws protect sexual assault and rape victims’ names from being released. A police report that does not include a victim’s name also prevents investigation because police would have no leads.

The victim is given back a sense of power and control by refraining from creating public records or reporting to the police, said a female Chapman student. She has been assaulted twice off campus and wishes to remain anonymous.

In every case, students are referred to C.A.R.E.S. and the Student Psychological Counseling Services.

Reports filed as attempted rape and assaults are treated the same as sexual assault charges and officers follow the same steps, White said.

Students accused of sexual assault or rape may be taken to a University conduct hearing. The accused person can request a hearing, but the University can set one up if he appears to be a danger to the community, Smith said. There, a hybrid group of students and administrators hears the case and the board rules as it deems fit.

Price, who has served as a dean of students at three universities since 1990, has never seen a sexual assault case go to court because cases of sexual assault and rape are often hard to prove.

These cases are sometimes brought to trial on lesser counts that do not involve sexual crimes, such as in Becerra’s case.

Because Chapman operates independently from the judicial system, its goal is to focus on student empowerment through groups such as C.A.R.E.S., which holds events on campus to raise awareness about sexual violence. The group hosts events like the Clothesline Project and Take Back the Night.

Public Safety also provides Rape Awareness Defense, R.A.D., as a weekend course for women that teaches self-defense tactics and techniques. Nationally certified instructors teach this course, which is the only self-defense program endorsed by the International Association of Campus Law Administrators.

R.A.D. taught Hammon to use her voice and say “No.”

“You scream ‘no’ a lot,” she said. “It’s something I think should be required for freshman women.”


Contact these reporters:amber.gonzales@thepantheronline.com and taylor.johnson@thepantheronline.com