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closeUnsigned letter: 'Drop the charges'
By Mike Joseph and Pete Bosak, Centre Daily Times
STATE COLLEGE — An anonymous letter, slipped under the door of a downtown apartment where police are investigating reported assaults, urges the apartment occupants to “drop the charges” and instead “seek out the football department and ask for a formal meeting with your attackers.”
State College Police Chief Thomas King called the “well-written” letter “highly inappropriate,” and Penn State Assistant Vice President Bill Mahon said the letter seemed “to be an attempt to intimidate the victim of a crime.” The letter, five paragraphs printed through a computer, bears no date or letterhead. It is addressed “to whom it may concern,” and is signed “the voice of the Penn State student body.”
The letter was slipped under the door of an apartment at the Meridian II apartment building, 646 E. College Ave., early Wednesday morning. Apartment occupants Larry Himes and Joe McGarrity said Thursday that a third roommate found the letter at 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Penn State students Himes and McGarrity, who hosted an apartment party Saturday night, told police that 10 or more men — including Penn State football players — pushed their way into the apartment shortly after midnight Sunday and assaulted four or five men at the party.
“I want you to realize that you have the power now to press charges or to drop them,” the letter says. “Legally, the ball is in your hands. However, you can be a hero in this situation and forgive the attackers for what they have done.”
The letter adds: “I am sure that the coaches want to know exactly what happened and it would be good for all of you to discuss everything so that any ambiguity is washed out. Then the coaches will be able to punish the actors accordingly. There is contact information at the bottom of this page for Tim Curley, the athletic director. He would be able to set up a meeting of this sort if you would like.”
Below the closing, contact information for Curley is listed. Curley was not in his office Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Police said Tuesday that investigators are interviewing Penn State football players and that the investigation could lead to charges of burglary, criminal trespass or simple assault. Police said 11 or 12 men were in the group that pushed into the third-floor apartment, but said they could not say if all were football players.
Police said the incident in the third-floor apartment was related to an earlier “street confrontation” at High Street and East College Avenue in which a man took offense at remarks directed at his girlfriend from a group of three men, and reacted verbally and physically.
Himes, 21, and McGarrity, 20, gave the letter to Penn State’s Office of Judicial Affairs and to State College police, and then decided Thursday to disclose it.
“We want people to see this,” Himes said.
The letter tells the apartment occupants that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno “will take separate action from the law” and cautions them that, if they don’t “end it now” by dropping the charges, “this will just become a long legal battle for yourselves in which both parties involved will most likely be making accusations.”
Mahon said Curley and the coaches will not meet with the victims.
“We’re very concerned about the letter,” Mahon said. “It seems to me to be an attempt to intimidate the victim of a crime.”
King said his department learned of the letter at around noon Wednesday when investigators were contacted by Penn State’s Office of Judicial Affairs. The apartment occupants had given the letter to Judicial Affairs, which gave it to State College police, King said.
“We would like to know who wrote this,” King said. “We would like to find out who the author and the deliverer of this note was. We want to convey to this person that they are not to have any future contact with the residents of that apartment. The want left alone. They do not want people contacting them about this case.”
Although King has discussed the letter with Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, the chief said one non-threatening letter is not enough to warrant criminal charges against its author.
“It’s a fairly well-written letter,” King said. “But it’s highly inappropriate to contact someone who is the victim of an incident during a police investigation.”
The letter also was futile, the chief said.
It is not within the power of the victims to “drop” any possible charges, King said.
“We could file charges without the consent of victims and get subpoenas,” King said. “They’d be required to show up and that’s been done in the past.”
King said investigators still have more than a half dozen interviews to conduct before the case is presented to Madeira for a decision on charges.
The chief said charges could be filed within the next two weeks.
McGarrity’s father, whose first name is also Joe, said Thursday from Philadelphia that in a Wednesday afternoon telephone conversation with Curley, the athletic director told him that him that what happened at the apartment early Sunday morning, in the elder McGarrity’s words, “isn’t a big deal.”
McGarrity said the conversation with Curley made McGarrity “livid” and that he hung up on the athletic director. McGarrity said he has called the offices of state and federal lawmakers. “He (McGarrity’s son) had a home invasion,“ the elder McGarrity said. “We worked hard to send our son to school.”
Mike Joseph can be reached at mjoseph@centredaily.com and 235-3910. Pete Bosak can be reached at pbosak@centredaily.com and 235-3928.
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