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One sexual assault case closed; one under investigation

The case of the sexual assault that occurred during Homecoming 2006 has been closed following the victim’s wishes to settle the matter out of court, said Sergeant Balwant Dhillon, head of the Kingston Police sexual assault unit.

Dhillon couldn’t disclose any specific information regarding the sexual assault, but said the suspect in the case was a 20 year-old male Kingston resident.

No charges were laid in the case.

“It’s not going any further because we’re honouring the victim’s wishes,” he said. “We were able to do the investigation, and were out to get to a point where we could have gone to court, but the victim didn’t want to.”

Dhillon said an investigation on the sexual assault that occurred during Frosh Week 2007 is still being pursued. The suspect is a male Kingston resident, but police couldn’t disclose his age.

“It’s still an active investigation,” he said. “Some [investigations] are fairly straightforward, others become more confusing because of the type of offence that took place, lack of witnesses and a number of other issues.”

Dhillon said the time it takes to investigate a case differs on a case-to-case basis.

—Jane Switzer

JComm still finalizing Homecoming complaints

Numbers are still being finalized regarding a number of complaints following Homecoming 2007 that will be forwarded to the Judicial Committee (JComm).

“We’ve got some info we’re still compiling,” said Campus Security Director Dave Patterson. “We haven’t sent it over and we don’t have final numbers.”

When preparing a complaint form, Patterson said Campus Security compiles information regarding an incident, such as details on the occurrence, time, date and place for the complainant.

“It could be reports that are made to us, and we forward them off,” he said. “They could be forwarded to us from a community member or the Kingston police, and we forward them to the AMS for judicial review.”

Director of Judicial Affairs Jeff Warshafsky said most complaints are forwarded to JComm by Campus Security.

“To get a case, we need a complaint to go into our system,” he said. “We can’t go out and try to find people—we need them to be referred to us.”

Warshafsky said JComm didn’t start investigating complaints related to Homecoming 2006 until the following January.

He said direct harm needs to have occurred to the complainant in order for a complaint to qualify being pursued by JComm.

“In the case of Campus Security, they act as a representative of Queen’s, who has been directly harmed by the damages,” he said.

Warshafsky said the punishments handed out will vary on a case-by-case basis.

Because complaints reflect poorly on Queen’s and cause tension in the Kingston community, Warshafsky said emphasis has been placed on giving back to the communities effected by wrongdoings.

—Jane Switzer

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