Student retracts rape story

An 18-year-old student who reported being raped in an Assembly Hall restroom last week during the IU-Purdue basketball game admitted to fabricating the story to authorities, according to the IU Police Department.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said Dets. Steve Fiscus and Leslie Slone interviewed the woman for a second time Tuesday afternoon. After being confronted with several inconsistencies, the woman recanted the story she told police and Bloomington Hospital employees on Feb. 22.\n"From what I heard, she was not emotional about the confession," Minger said. "She didn't seem distraught in any way."\nMinger said the woman was advised that false reporting charges would be filed against her, and she will be summoned to appear in court.\nAccording to Indiana law, false reporting of crimes is considered a Class D felony and carries a penalty of a fine up to $10,000 and six months to three years in jail.\nAccording to police reports, the woman was found unconscious in a women's restroom in Assembly Hall on Feb. 22. Police reports indicate she had bloodshot eyes, smelled like alcohol and was staggering. She was taken to the first-aid station where a nurse recommended she be taken to the emergency room. She was given a ticket for public intoxication and illegal consumption of alcohol.\nAt about 11:55 p.m., Bloomington Hospital employees notified police that the woman told a nurse that she was drugged and raped in a bathroom at Assembly Hall. \nAfter her initial interview, Minger said police began to question her story.\nMinger said IUPD received numerous calls from spectators who were sitting near the woman at the basketball game. After interviewing them, in addition to staffers who worked in the lobby and around the seats at the game, detectives formulated a timeline of events.\n"The timeline just seemed off," Minger said. "Between these various accounts of people who spotted her, we realized that it was virtually impossible for this incident to have occurred."\nMinger said this is not the first time someone has falsified a rape story.\nIn October 2003, a student told authorities she was raped while walking on campus near Ballantine Hall. She later admitted to fabricating the story.\nAlthough the woman did not say why she falsified the Assembly Hall rape story, Minger said he suspects she might have been trying to avoid an alcohol charge.\n"Maybe she thought that by telling us she was a victim of sexual assault, she wouldn't be cited for alcohol," Minger said. "At this point, the only thing we know for sure is that the story was made up."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lori Geller at lfgeller@indiana.edu.