University of Indianapolis Campus Police Found No Crime in Sexual Assault Claim After 30-Minute Investigation
ByThe campus police of the University of Indianapolis investigated Amanda Tripp's sexual assault claim in less time than a full episode of "CSI," the Huffington Post reported.
Tripp said her assault took place Oct. 6, 2012, but it took her until Nov. 26 that year, with therapy in between, to report it. She said she would not expecting results immediately and accepted such an investigation would take time.
"Obviously these things take time," Tripp told the Huffington Post. "It's not like 'CSI,' where all these things happen in an hour."
When Tripp followed up in January after not hearing anything back, she was given a copy of her Nov. 26 crime report. The time stamped on it was 30 minutes after she left the police office that day and read: "a crime did not occur."
"I was entirely stunned when I saw the report and that it was just done with," she said. "I was under the impression all those months that they were in the process of investigating and would contact me when they needed information or had some for me. They deceived me into believing that my case was being investigated when really they decided not to bother based on a half-page, bare-bones statement that the reporting officer wrote."
Tripp shared the report with the Huffington Post and said the police did not follow up with her and conducted no interviews. Scott Hall, a university spokesman, said the campus police contacted a city detective and, based solely on her statement, no crime occurred.
"The student made clear that she wasn't interested in pursuing a criminal case and wasn't interested in pursuing an internal investigation until some time later," Hall said.
Although the case was closed, Tripp said the report contained errors and, when she asked for them to be fixed, she was told to file a "second, more complete" report. Separate from the police investigation, Tripp had a hearing with the school's judicial system in February.
The hearing concluded with Tripp's accused assailant being allowed to stay in her residence hall and not found responsible for a sex crime. Tripp also said she was not given a copy of the hearing's decision.
Tripp is still considering what options she can take and plans to exhaust all of her options with the school before further legal action. She said she chose to go public with her story now because her school is "not going to keep me from speaking out."