Judge grants order banning student

District Judge Barbara Vigil granted a female St. John’s College student’s request for a six-month restraining order against a male student she accused of raping her twice in one week at the beginning of June.

No criminal charges have been filed against the 21-year-old male student, who maintains the allegations are false.

The restraining order, however, requires him to remain at least 100 yards away from the woman and almost certainly ends his career at the liberal-arts college.

A temporary restraining order filed by the woman in June had barred the man from attending classes in the school’s summer session. Citing the school’s requirements for class attendance, administrators expelled the man from the summer session, making him ineligible to enroll in classes until at least January.

With the extended order now in place, it’s likely the man will have to find another college at which to study.

Vigil scheduled an October hearing to review her order and indicated she would like to see the man enter some kind of a counseling program, but did not order him to do so.

“What exactly have I done that requires counseling?” the man asked Vigil in a seemingly frustrated tone. His attorney cut him off before he could say more.

Both the man and woman, through their respective attorneys, declined to speak to a reporter after Friday’s proceedings.

The man’s attorney, John Day, said he was unable to speak about his client’s academic plans, but maintained his client engaged only in consensual sex with the woman. “We maintained all along that these are false allegations and there is no need for a court order, but we respect the judge’s decision,” Day said.

Attorney Tom Clark, who represented the woman, lauded Vigil’s decision to extend the restraining order against the man. “She was pleased by the ruling of the court and finally feels that someone is listening to her,” Clark said.

The woman has said she waited nearly a week to report the alleged incidents to college officials and then police because she did not think anyone would believe her.

The man’s attorney has cited that delay as evidence the woman was not raped and to bolster the contention she made up the charges to end her relationship with the man.

The woman testified last week that she and the man had met in a class in January and had a sexual relationship during the following months. A mid-May argument over contraception ended their relationship, she said.

But on May 30, she visited the man’s dorm room to make amends and to see whether the two could still be friends, she said. During that visit, she testified, the man raped her.

The woman returned to the man’s room June 1, she testified, because she believed he was going to apologize for the first alleged attack and felt it was best to deal with the situation face-to-face. She said the man raped her again during that visit.