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Third student rape reported to Cal Poly

May 16, 2011

By LISA RIZZO

A third woman in a matter of days reported she was raped, in a trio of unrelated cases alarming the Cal Poly community.

The University Police Department said a woman reported she was raped in her room at the school’s Poly Canyon Village on Sunday night. Like the two other allegations of sexual assault, she also said she was unconscious at the time due to alcohol consumption.

While a suspect has been identified, no one has been arrested in this case.

The campus police department issued three sexual assault alerts to the Cal Poly community within the last week. The law requires the department to disclose the facts, as reported, in campus wide alerts.

The first sexual assault report was made by a female student who said she was raped May 7 at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on California Blvd. Cal Poly student Joseph Trupiano, 23, was taken into custody after turning himself in to face the allegations days later. He was charged with sexual assault.

The second report of attack was made by a student who claimed she was raped in her campus dormitory room at Poly Canyon Village last Thursday night. Police have identified a separate suspect in this additional case but no arrest has been made.


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I don’t care what the situation is, sex should only be between TWO consenting adults and obviously one cannot consent if they are passed out. I don’t what to condemn bad behavior like getting drunk, because that is another whole isse. There is no excuse anytime for one person to take advantage of another person whether they are drunk, incapitated in a hospital, or other situation. We have all hopefully taught our children that no one has the right to touch you inappropriately and certainly not without your consent. Anything else is just plain criminal period.


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TWO!? But… but… all my college fantasies have just been crushed! I’ll never become a mormon or a sheik now… ;-)


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…in a trio of unrelated cases…


Really? Unrelated? At the very least, it is the alleged rape that ties them together. Plus two of them occurred in the same area (Poly Canyon Village). Whether there is actual crime or pranks (false claims) these are likely related.


It could be something as stupid as some folks wanting attention and making false statements to innocent girls forcibly raped! Either way, there are connections here; I hope the quote was not from anyone in charge of these cases.


My guess is, some date-rape drugs are floating around – have the girls had any tox-screenings? Or were the alleged rapes too long past the time when they came forward? Without any good data, it’s hard to speculate.


Of course, I speculate that it is drugging, only because I don’t like thinking that girls are drinking themselves into a blacked-out stupor. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to think they’re not all tramp-stamped little sluts with a new-found pride.


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r0y, CP Officials and the media are saying the rapes are unrelated because a different guy has been accused in each case. They don’t want to give the impression that there is a rapist on the loose. In each of these cases, a suspect has already been identified and these aren’t strangers sneaking up on these girls.

What is related is that they were all drunk and unconscious or functioning in a blackout and all knew their alleged rapist. A toxicology screen can be processed rater quick and if someone was putting drugs in the girls drinks, I would think this would have already been reported to the public and students. Usually when drugs are used the victim is suspicious because they know they didn’t drink enough to have no memory of the event. I haven’t heard anyone screaming date rape drugs, if that were the case. these girls would have my undivided sympathy.


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OMG r0y, I just read the link you put up. I already had a feeling that something like that was going on.

The poor guy’s. The first girl who claimed she was raped wasn’t even a CP student. She was just hanging around at the frat house party boozing it up and some of the woman say that she was throwing herself at the guy’s and stayed until the early morning light. She asked someone for a ride home and gave no indication that there was any problem, then BAM BAM BAM, the poop started hitting the fan. I think your on to something.


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“The poor guy’s”?? Seriously? You feel sorry for someone who sexually assaulted an unconscious female?


The fact that the first girl wasn’t a CP student is irrelevant, as is the fact that she was at the frat house boozing it up. Unless you meant to point out that the frat provided her with the alcohol (in violation of their charter) so they are partially at fault.


Finally she could have been half naked throwing herself at every guy in the room, that doesn’t mean as soon as she passed out she was fair game for a sexual assault. And the fact that she stayed late and did not say anything about the assault when she left also means nothing. She may have still been in shock from the violent sexual assault she experienced.


Finally all these stories you are hearing are more than likely rumors and lies that the frat is spreading as they once again circle the wagons to defend their outrageous actions.


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Under normal circumstances, a group of drunken frat boys is not generally considered the most reliable and trustworthy source of information. I fail to see why how being accused of rape somehow makes them more reliable or trustworthy.


On the flip side, I think it’s dangerous to take an accusation like that at face value. The accuser could be telling the truth, she could be making stuff up, or she could even be honestly mistaken. Out here in the peanut gallery, we really have no way of knowing, let alone making a judgment beyond a reasonable doubt.


In short, I hate fratboys, but let’s give them a fair trial before we hang’ em.


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I know I will instantly burn for this but it has to be said.


Why are young adults getting so drunk that they are blacking out?! Where have values gone in America where it is normal for college students to think it is okay to get wasted all the time? What good can come out it?!


Rape is wrong. There is no question about that. It is wrong and anyone caught raping someone should be castrated. People who can do that to a person have something wrong with them mentally. No amount of propaganda can change that. Someone who has this in them will not change just because you told them it is wrong.


Every young adult (male and female) should always be cautious when out late at night. They should always go out in groups and be cautious of drinks from strangers. They should know limits, and know when they’ve had enough. If a person was to black out drunk and get robbed, no one would say they held no fault.


My thoughts are jumbled, and I am having a hard time typing this because it is such a hard situation. I don’t want to be the one that says these girls asked for it- because they didn’t. They DID however put themselves in REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad situations. Would they still have been raped if they hadn’t blacked out? I am sure this is a question they are asking themselves right now. The rest of theirs lives will be tarnished by the memory of what happened. What could they have done to prevented it? The first answer is the obvious one. It’s not right and it will never be okay. Hopefully others can hear the stories of these women and make better decisions when drinking.


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“The rest of theirs lives will be tarnished by the memory of what happened.”

Huh? They don’t remember. This is the 3rd drunk that was in a blackout and can’t remember but thinks she was raped, I don’t know maybe they were all raped, maybe not. Three in one week is starting to sound mighty fishy.


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Cindy I concur with you.

You see the emotionally naive and through the other BS, smart gal!


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I have pondered your comments and find them ignorant. You would feel sorry for these girls for being raped if they were drugged, but not if they were drunk? (your post at 7:27am) here you say their lives are not affected because they were drugged and don’t remember?


Imagine for a moment that you “woke” up to find someone had entered your body without your consent. They leave their body product and smell on you. You are sore. You feel horrible. Something happened and you don’t know what. By whom. By how many. Who witnessed it. Was it filmed? Am I marked? Can i finish school? Can I trust men again? Can I trust my girl friends? Who can I trust. If I go to the police will they blame me like you are?


Cindy, are you a man? You have old male think. It’s 2011.


A drugged woman, a drunk woman. Neither can give consent. Why not save your hostility for all the young men who stood around while these rapes went on. This is not new behavior for young men. I am old enough to remember when Ms. Magazine interviewed men who were asked if they would rape a woman if they were guaranteed they could get away with it. The vast majority of them said YES. And here you are defending them and blaming the victims.


Yes, I am a feminist and I have my wife to thank.


Please shush now.


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Mr Paul Anthony, I am a woman who attended enough wild parties for me and half the campus during my late teens and my 20’s. You are talking to an experienced “party girl”. What you describe as a possible scenario sounds reprehensible and is something that is unthinkable to me, ie:

“Imagine for a moment that you “woke” up to find someone had entered your body without your consent. They leave their body product and smell on you. You are sore. You feel horrible. Something happened and you don’t know what. By whom. By how many. Who witnessed it. Was it filmed? Am I marked? Can i finish school? Can I trust men again? Can I trust my girl friends? Who can I trust. If I go to the police will they blame me.”


I know these things can happen and that is why I never, not ever, drank myself into a comma when I partied in that type of an environment. Oh yes, I did get drunk on occasion and used drugs too. I did that when I knew (and I mean I KNEW) that I was in a safe situation. Never, not ever did I go off with a strange guy that I didn’t want to be with, not ever did I walk into a strange bedroom and pass out or ,or ,or………..


These girls are irresponsible and they can’t even recall what they did? Yet, they want to claim rape. I have friends that I have seen in blackouts and I have to tell you that I recall dragging more than one of them out of a party after they got way to sexy for it to be healthy. They didn’t remember a thing but they weren’t unconscious until after they had done their deeds, the next day, they didn’t remember and were mortified when I told them about it. I’ve seen what happens and it isn’t always rape, no way, no how. It is often consensual and the girl doesn’t remember any of it.


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My guess is, Cindy, that responding to you is not going to change your entrenched blame the victim – if it’s between a male and a female the female had it coming – attitude. I’m really happy you never experienced rape. Because you never got too drunk and that is why is still more short-sighted thinking. You don’t account for date rape, for nondrunk women whose drinks are tampered with, you don’t account for “friends” who take young girls to parties knowing they are easy marks, you don’t take into account that most men would rape if they could get away with it, you don’t take into account that most rapes go unreported. The young women who are standing up and saying enough, I am willing to be humiliated by people like Cindy in order to keep other women from being raped (potentially) are each women I am proud of. Done. You have a nice day.


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Mr Anthony, I will say this one more time. These girls do not know what they did or did not do, they don’t remember because they were too drunk. I did not say they were not raped, I said, we will have to wait for more facts.


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Maybe the girl (at least the first girl, I don’t know much about the two PCV instances) wasn’t even blacked out. she could be lying and we’d never know if she was just drunk or blacked out.


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They will always have the memory of waking up confused about what happened. They will always have the memory of people like us judging them, and their choices. It is a horrible thing to live with I am sure, and I am sure there is also a lot of guilt. Hopefully these girls can get the counseling I am sure they will need and can go on the live productive lives.


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Is underage drinking in college any different than when I went to Poly? I lived at Stenner Glen for the 1978-1979 school year and it alcohol was everywhere. Stenner would buy kegs and put them around the pool and show movies on one of the building walls even though 90%+ of residents were under 21. Toga parties were happening in at least one suite every Friday and Saturday too.


What are the dorm rules at Poly regarding alcohol? Does possession or being under the influence mean immediate eviction from the dorm?


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moe: You have put my exact thoughts down here; I too do not want to “blame the victim” in any way, shape or form, nor do I want to offer any sort of excuse for the accused behavior of the young men in question. When I had my business downtown, I would go in some evenings late at night to get caught up on paperwork or to change out a display; being almost next door to one of the bars with the worst reputation in town as a place to get rip-roaring drunk, I would witness behavior by some of the young ladies that really had me fearing for their safety. One time a young lady came into the alcove in front of my store, sat down and then promptly passed out, falling over onto her side hiking her dress up to point of exposing her underwear. I was pleasantly surprised when a young man who was also out there took off his jacket and covered her up, tried to position her so she wouldn’t hurt her neck because of how she had slumped over, then he told a friend of his to go into the bar to look for her girlfriends so they could take care of her. I also witnessed a few times young ladies trying to walk away from the bar on their own when they could barely even stand up because they were so drunk. I totally agree with you that rape is wrong, period, no question; and that everyone should take responsibility for their individual actions. I just wish that young women would keep an awareness of what consuming large quantities of alcohol can do to you and what passing out could possibly lead to.


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