On Monday, Charlottesville, VA Police Chief Timothy Longo said that there was “no evidence” to substantiate the alleged sexual assault at the University of Virginia described in a Rolling Stone article at a press conference regarding the police’s investigation.
“A further investigation revealed no evidence that a party had taken place [at Phi Kappa Psi] on September 28th [the date of the alleged assault] as well. We checked the social calendar, there was no information pertaining to — such a party on the social calendar,” and that Phi Kappa Psi’s sister sorority had a social function on the same night, which made it unlikely that Phi Psi would hold an event and “cannibalize” their guest list.
Longo added that photograph timestamped on September 28th around 11:30 pm showing a man at the “entrance corridor” of the Phi Psi house holding two chairs where “there is literally no one else around, we found that to be somewhat inconsistent with the large group that was described in the Rolling Stone article. Suffice it to say we were unable to find any basis of fact to conclude there was even an event on September the 28th, 2012 at that particular fraternity house.”
He also reported that there were inconsistencies between the Rolling Stone article and what “Jackie’s” friends recall, such as where they met, and the fact that her friends do not recall “Jackie” having any injuries that night
Longo continued, “we’ve made numerous attempts to identify who Haven Monahan [the person “Jackie” claimed was her date on the night of the assault] is, to the extent that Haven Monahan even exists, using that telephone number that they [“Jackie’s” friends] believe they were texting back and forth to, we searched numerous Internet sites to try to identify him. The telephone number came back to what was a Google number, as I recall, and there was no information that could be obtained — subscriber information that could be obtained from Google. We interviewed members of the aquatic staff, Haven Monahan or this person ‘Drew’ that’s identified in the article, and ‘Jackie’ were supposed to have worked together at the Aquatic Center pool, interviewed the supervisors at the pool, none of them were familiar with a Drew or a Haven Monahan.”
Longo concluded, “we’re not able to conclude any — to any substantive degree that an incident that is consistent with the facts contained in that article occurred — at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house or any other fraternity house for that matter.” Later, during questioning, he said “we have no evidence that supports those assertions [made in the article].”
Long did clarify “that doesn’t mean that something terrible did not happen to ‘Jackie’ on the evening of September the 28th, 2012, we are just not able to gather sufficient facts to conclude what that something may have been. So, this case is not closed. It’s not closed by any stretch of the imagination. It’s suspended until such time as we are able to gather more information, or such time until someone comes forward and provides us with more information.” Although, he further stated that there was no evidence to support two other sexual assaults that “Jackie” alleged happened at Phi Kappa Psi in conversations with school officials.
He also reported that “a lot of time and energy” was invested in the investigation.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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