Yu pleads guilty to sexual battery, confinement

Last March, former student Hai “Howie” Yu was charged with raping a female student and dragging her half-naked body out of the Foster Residence Center. On Wednesday, the rape charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of sexual battery and criminal confinement.

After the plea agreement was announced in court, deputy prosecutor Rebecca Veidlinger told the judge that the victim, who appeared in court, had been
consulted about the new charges and supported the resolution.

“Thank you,” Monroe Circuit Judge Teresa Harper said. “I would have had serious concerns and misgivings about this agreement had I not been aware that the victim in this case feels that this is an appropriate decision.”

Since his arrest, Yu has lived under house arrest in Bloomington. On Wednesday, he arrived at the Justice Building ­— holding the door open for an elderly woman on the way in — and sat quietly in the hallway, head hung.

During questioning from his attorney and Veidlinger, Yu was never directly questioned about intercourse. However, he confirmed he had touched and kissed the victim. He also said he knew she was highly intoxicated that night.

“Would you agree that her level of intoxication rendered her mentally disabled or deficient?” Veidlinger asked Yu.

“Yes,” he said.

“And that mental disability or deficiency prevented her from being able to consent to that touching?” Veidlinger asked.

“Yes.”

Yu’s case was scheduled for a jury trial starting March 7.

Witnesses who saw Yu and the victim at various points throughout the evening of March 11, shed light on what happened through police reports and interviews with the Indiana Daily Student.

The night started with a party and ended with a woman in the hospital and possible sexual assault changes. IU Student Association election results had been counted that day, and the numbers were official by the evening: iUnity, the party Yu was affiliated with as the 2009-10 Foster Residence Center representative to the IUSA Congress, won. Many of the campaign’s members, including Yu and the victim, were celebrating the victory at Phi Gamma Delta.

iUnity members said they didn’t notice anything unusual about Yu or the victim that night. Few knew him personally and one member said he had never met Yu before. Junior Farihah Hossain said she saw the victim drinking, but noted that she was with friends and nothing seemed wrong.

However, police said security videos captured Yu dragging the woman across the deck of the fraternity toward the parking lot.

By the end of the night, a sober driver told police the victim was leaning against Yu, her knees buckling as they waited for a ride. The driver told police he questioned Yu about the woman’s identity and where she lived. Yu told the driver she lived in a sorority, but to take them both to Foster so he would be able to take care of her. During the trip back, the woman sat limp and silent in the car.

“The sorority was not the best place for her now,” Yu allegedly told the driver.
Police said they also checked surveillance cameras from Foster. According to a report, video footage showed Yu dragging a fully clothed woman who was “not moving under her own power” toward the west door of Foster-Magee.

About an hour later, the security camera captured Yu dragging the woman out of the same door. This time, police said, she was naked from the waist down.

Junior Mackenzie Kelley told the IDS she was getting a ride home from a party with several other girls when she saw Yu drag the woman toward a dumpster. The woman was unconscious, she said, and missing pants.

“Do you need help?” Kelley remembered yelling to Yu from the car window.
“No,” he said. “It’s OK. I’ve got it.”

After getting out of the car to try and help the woman, Kelley told Yu they needed to call the police.

IUPD officers who responded to the call took the victim to Bloomington Hospital, where she was treated for bruises and a spleen injury.

The next morning, police questioned and arrested Yu at the Indianapolis International Airport.

The Long Island native was getting ready to board a flight back to New York for spring break. While investigators originally feared he was fleeing, Yu later explained he had purchased the ticket a month in advance.

After his arrest, IUSA removed Yu from Congress, IU officials announced he was no longer a student, and he was placed under house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor.

Yu is scheduled to be sentenced March 24.