IU settles lawsuit with former student after 8 months

A lawsuit filed against IU and several members of the IU Police Department by a former student was dismissed earlier this month after an eight-month legal battle. \nMonroe County Circuit Judge E. Michael Hoff dismissed the lawsuit Aug. 10, after former IU student Kathryn Faster and the University both agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. \nThe settlement agreement shows that Faster agreed to the dismissal on the grounds that both her attorney David Colman and Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann would meet in an attempt to expunge her record. \nThe agreement states that regardless of whether Faster was successful in clearing her record, she would still dismiss the lawsuit. \nFaster filed the lawsuit in December, claiming that she was publicly humiliated after being falsely arrested in 2003. The charges were later dropped, but Faster spent nine hours in jail and her record still shows she was arrested.\nThe lawsuit, which asked for $350,000, said that Faster had been falsely arrested on charges of fraud and for falsely informing police, following an investigation by IU police into the theft of her bank card. The University denied the claims of the suit. \nIn the initial lawsuit, Faster said her hometown bank account became overdrawn in 2003, and when she could not find her debit card, she contacted her bank and was told to file a police report.\nWhen she reported the card missing to the IUPD in October 2003, Faster also provided the police with a list of charges on her card. \nIn her lawsuit she claimed officers assumed all the charges she submitted were fraudulent, though Faster did not tell police whether the charges were made by her. When police investigated the list, they obtained a security tape showing Faster withdrawing money from an ATM.\nPolice believed this proved Faster falsified the fraudulent activity they arrested her, the lawsuit said.\nAlso named in the lawsuit were IUPD officers Deborah Delay, Gregory McClure, Matthew Keithley and Brice Boembeke.\nColman and lawyers for IU did not return calls seeking comments as of press time.