Justice Story

During two hot summer nights in mid-August a series of assault allegations shook the WSU campus and raised serious concerns about public safety and accountability.

The three allegations from two freshman women turned out to be false.

“If you look at what happened when they did this you saw a sense of alarm and a sense of uneasiness around campus,” WSU Police Lt. Steve Hansen said.

The first alleged assault was reported on Aug. 19 and was followed by a second and third report on Aug. 24.

The freshman woman who reported the first and third assaults later recanted both accusations after police found inconsistencies in her statements.

The second report made by another freshman woman also had inconsistencies and was proven fictitious. There is no link between the two freshman women, Hansen said.

“We treated all three incidences as if they were valid until we proved they were wrong,” Hansen said.

The two freshman woman could face a gross misdemeanor for filing a false report which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $10,000 fine, Hansen said.

Although WSU Police are unsure if they will file criminal charges, Hansen said they have a year and a day after the accusations took place to file a claim.

“These women should be punished to the fullest extent,” freshman general studies major Zach McKiernan. “Because of these false claims, women are now afraid when they see me or any guy when I’m walking home at night.”

The false assault claims led several students to ask questions about public safety, said freshman kinesiology major Allie Guy.

“Just because the assaults were fake doesn’t mean something like that couldn’t happen,” she said. “All the sudden me and my friends were a lot more cautious.”

Over the five day period when the three assault claims were reported, students who registered their cell phones to the campus alert system were informed through text messages about the alleged assaults.

“I think (the text messages) were very affective,” Hansen said. “It got the message we wanted out there in a short period of time.”

With members of the Cougar Security Program, police interns, and WSU and Pullman police making their presence seen during the night, Hansen considers campus a safe place.

“We’re always out there in the night patrolling,” he said.

Although there has not been a significant decrease or increase in the number of assaults on campus, new safety measure such as code blue alarms, elevator alarms, increased lighting and women’s transit has made campus feel safer, Hansen said.

“I definitely feel safe when I walk around campus at night,” Guy said. “I feel the likelihood of an assault is really low but there are devices that make me feel even safer.”

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