UCF student says assault was at same frat as other rape

A young woman lay mostly naked and bloodied in the study room of a University of Central Florida fraternity after a 2016 tailgate party, a man she didn’t know shaking her awake.

Just three months into her freshman year, she said she was drunk from spending most of the November morning sipping mixed drinks and hopping between frat parties, a football game-day ritual. She had a bump on her head but couldn’t remember hitting it. She was bleeding from her genitals, she later told university officials, saying the area “felt like it was torn.” She later realized she had been raped. But for more than a year, she told almost nobody.

“I didn’t want to make it a big deal,” she said. “I didn’t want my family knowing and I had just come to college. My parents were already so stressed about me being here, I just really didn’t want them to know.”

Last January, spurred by the arrest of two men from the same fraternity on rape charges, she reported the incident to the university office that investigates sexual-misconduct complaints, which determined the “preponderance of evidence” showed another student had intercourse with her when she was too drunk to consent. The incident involved

a pledge of Alpha Tau Omega, which has a history of sexual-assault allegations during parties at UCF. Since July 2017, four men, including at least one member, have been arrested after women accused them of rape during a party at the chapter house or inside a home where fraternity members lived.

The fraternity is currently operating with few limitations. The man later was expelled but didn’t face criminal charges because the woman, fearing her name would be made public, didn’t report the incident to police.

In an interview, Wynn Smiley, CEO of the national Alpha Tau Omega organization, said the fraternity requires new members to complete an online course on topics such as alcohol and sexual misconduct and encourages young men to intervene if they see someone in trouble.

“We take a very dim view of any kind of sexual assault,” Smiley said.

But he distanced the fraternity from the allegations, saying he wanted to avoid allowing a few members’ wrongdoings to tarnish the entire chapter.

The woman, now a 20-year-old junior, spoke to the Orlando Sentinel last month and is not named in this story at her request. She provided documents from the university that would typically be confidential because of student privacy laws, confirming her account. Those reports provide a rare look at the university’s student conduct process, which typically occurs out of the public’s view.

Though the charges were dropped against the four men who were arrested earlier this year and last summer, the woman said she wanted to people to know about other allegations at fraternity events.

“I still wanted people to at least know there was another case,” she said. “I feel like everyone kept calling the other girls liars and personally, I believe them.”

‘Didn’t want to make it a big deal’

A noon kickoff for the Knights game against Cincinnati on Nov. 12, 2016, meant an early start to game day revelry on campus. The woman and her friends started tailgating about 8 or 9 in the morning, and after stopping at several frats, the group arrived at Alpha Tau Omega house about 11 a.m.

The fraternity brothers mixed the drinks so she’s not sure how much alcohol was in them. She estimated she downed the equivalent of 15 to 20 shots of liquor that morning. For about two hours in the early afternoon, she can’t remember where she was or what happened, she later told the university’s Title IX office, which investigates sexual misconduct and domestic violence.

The man’s version of events indicated the woman initiated sex, saying she unbuttoned his pants, according to the university documents. He said he didn’t take off any of her clothing but acknowledged he didn’t ask her consent for sex. He told university officials he stopped after 10 to 15 minutes “because he realized that he might ‘get in trouble’ with the fraternity for having sex in the house as a pledge during the party.”

When the woman regained consciousness, she was wearing only her bra. After waking her, the man immediately fled.

“I could definitely feel something had happened, so as soon as he left the room, I got up immediately and locked the door,” she said. “I was really confused and overwhelmed.”

Maybe 15 minutes later, another man knocked on the door. When she let him in, he called for his girlfriend, who asked her if she thought she’d been raped. Still dazed, she said she wasn’t sure.

The other woman helped her identify the man, who was 19 at the time, and when she spoke with his fraternity brother about the incident, he urged her not to report it to the school or the police, saying the organization would “handle it.”

The woman agreed. Even then, she figured the fraternity could do little to punish the man, who remained at the university and part of the chapter.

For nearly two years, the man faced no serious consequences. But after hearing about two men being arrested on rape charges — one of whom was the fraternity’s risk management officer — after a July 2017 party at the chapter house, she decided to speak up.

At that point, she had told almost no one else about what happened at the fraternity house that fall day, sharing her experience only with a handful of her close friends.

In January, she decided to alert UCF’s Title IX office. After a lengthy investigation, the office determined the two had sex and that a reasonable person should have known she was too drunk to consent.

That decision prompted the university’s Office of Student Conduct to expel the man for at least two years.

‘It’s incumbent on that group to take care of them’

The woman’s account from the incident more than two years ago is one of several disturbing allegations involving Alpha Tau Omega.

The fraternity was suspended in the immediate aftermath of the first set of arrests. After the first case in July 2017, the interim suspension was lifted within a month, though the fraternity agreed not to host social events during the fall semester.

In April, after two men were accused of gang-raping a woman during an off-campus party in a home leased by fraternity members, the university suspended the chapter again for alcohol violations. After multiple hearings, the university decided the chapter, which has almost 100 members, could resume most activities as long as no alcohol is involved. A few types of events, including tailgates, still aren’t allowed.

Since 2012, the fraternity has been sanctioned at least four times for various rule violations, including hazing and alcohol-related misconduct.

The university should hold student groups accountable when their actions harm a student, and the fraternity could be responsible for putting the woman in a vulnerable position if members provided alcohol to her, said John Foubert, who, as dean of the College of Education at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., has written about preventing sexual violence.

“If someone passes out in a room in their house, it’s incumbent on that group to take care of them, not to rape them, so I would hold that group accountable,” he said.

UCF officials declined to discuss the details of this case, citing student privacy laws.

Sexual assault on college campuses has received national attention in recent years, and last month U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released new guidelines that would give more rights to students accused of sexual assault and afford more protection to universities. The proposal will be open to public comment before it becomes final.

The man, who is now 21, didn’t respond to a phone message left with a family member.

‘They don’t know that side of it’

Nearly a year after the incident, the woman was at work when a friend sent a group text message about a news story that said two people were arrested on rape allegations during an Alpha Tau Omega “New Years in July” party in 2017.

“As soon as I read it, I started crying,” she said. “That’s when I really realized this is happening to people, not just me. Even though it wasn’t the same person, it felt like something that’s been going on in their fraternity.”

Right away, she said, “I was trying to convince myself to say something.”

After returning to campus after winter break in January, she finally did. Over the next several months, the Title IX Office interviewed her former roommate and others who attended the party.

In August, she testified about the incident during a hearing with university officials. In October, the student conduct office determined the man had violated university policies and he can’t come back to UCF for two years, and after that time, must reapply for admission.

Last month, she called the Sentinel and detailed the incident to a reporter. Her parents, who live in South Florida, still don’t know.

“I know I feel like they have this idea in their heads that I came to college and it’s all been great and I have all these great friends, which I do,” she said. “But they don’t know that side of it.”