UPDATED: Vermillion police investigating alleged rape at Coyote Village
Story by: Trent Opstedahl and Megan Card
Vermillion Police Department officials are investigating an alleged rape reported Sunday in Coyote Village involving two students on the University of South Dakota campus.
VPD Chief Matt Betzen confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into the reported sexual assault, and there have been no charges filed against the assailant as of Friday afternoon. Betzen declined to comment further on the case until “more developments become available.”
Clay County State’s Attorney Teddi Gertsma said her office is involved with the investigation, which is pending, but could not release any more information about the alleged sexual assault “due to the sensitivity of the case.”
Pete Jensen, USD police department director, said UPD responded to a call from the residence hall reporting the incident between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Oct. 6.
After securing the room where the alleged assault occurred between a male and female student, Jensen said the Vermillion police took over the case because of the severity of the circumstances.
The Student Services Office has not issued a statement to the campus population to inform them of the alleged rape. Friday afternoon, five days after the assault was reported, university housing sent out an email to students living on campus entitled, “Campus Safety Reminder” with 12 tips on how to stay safe.
Dean of Students Kim Grieve said Friday university officials did not send out an alert message to students right after the incident was reported, because they knew the people involved and determined “it was not an immediate threat to the campus.”
Grieve also said student services is being “transparent” with Coyote Village residents about the alleged assault. As of Friday, no message has been sent to students living in the building about the incident, and Grieve said housing staff is only giving out information when asked by residents.
In the 2010 fall semester, a similar situation occurred on campus when an alleged sexual assault was reported and investigated by Vermillion police. Within 24 hours of the incident, students were sent an email regarding the incident with safety advice.
Grieve said in the 14 months she has been at USD, she is not sure if protocol has changed when dealing with reported sexual assaults on campus, but that USD’s campus-wide alerts are only sent out if it is a significant emergency or a dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the safety of students or staff.
Phil Carter, manager of media relations, said Thursday a main reason the SSO has not issued a statement is because they don’t want to overuse the campus alert system, Everbridge. Carter added the SSO also feels this was “an isolated incident.”
“(The SSO) wants to take everything into consideration,” Carter said.
