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Police have charged Alexandra Pennell, an openly gay 19-year-old student at Central Connecticut State University with eight felony counts of fabricating evidence, eight misdemeanor charges of lying to police, eight misdemeanor counts of filing a false police report and one count of making a false statement to police, after they discovered the source of anti-gay notes that allegedly had been left for her by an unknown perpetrator.
It turns out she'd been writing the notes herself as a cry for attention.
More after the jump.
The Hartford Courant reports that Pennell reported eight different occurances where anti-gay notes were slipped under her door or written on her dry erase board. She reported these instances to her resident advisor and then tot he CCSU police.
CCSU police set up a video monitor, with Pennell's knowledge, outside of her door, but mysteriously the device was disabled at key times.
Police then set up a second camera without Pennell's knowledge, which captured her placing a note and then moment's later retrieving it and reporting the note to her resident advisor and then the police.
The CCSU community rallied around Pennell in response to the anti-gay harassment. Hundreds gathered at a March 13 rally where Pennell and her roommate Siobhan Dooley spoke.
Addressing the crowd, Pennell said:
"Central is my home just like it is every one of yours, and I'm proud to call it m home," receiving applause. "I stand here today speaking to the person responsible for this, and all I have to say is I'm not going to be run out of my home and I will not be intimidated by hate."
When confronted with the video footage, Pennell ultimately confessed to leaving all of the threatening notes. She apparently hoped that the harassment, would convince her roommate to spend more time with her. She also feared she was losing her girlfriend.
Pennell has been expelled from CCSU and she is not permitted to attend any state university for five years.
A CCSU spokesman, Mark McLaughlin released a statement saying that the university remains proud of the "campus community's response to what we believed was an act of bias, and we reaffirm now what was said then: acts of bias and hate will not be tolerated at CCSU."
Regarding Pennell, he said, "the CCSU police department conducted a thorough investigation and issued and arrest warrant to one of our students for falsification of evidence. While we are confident that the perpetrator has been identified, we are nonetheless saddened by the student's actions, which are likely to bring serious consequences to her."
Instances like this make it really difficult for the rest of us.
Let's hope she gets some help.
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