Lafayette College\u2019s handling of an alleged rape earlier this month has drawn criticism from Northampton County\u2019s top law enforcement official, which college officials have objected to.<\/p>\n
Northampton County District Attorney Steven Baratta disagreed with Lafayette\u2019s Office of Public Safety\u2019s decision to not send out a \u201ctimely warning\u201d to inform the campus community of an alleged rape that was reported on Oct. 4 and occurred sometime after midnight the day prior at the Williams Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n
A timely warning, as required by the federal Clery Act which mandates higher education institutions to publicly share campus crime data, is a mandatory campus alert that must be administered if an institution\u2019s public safety deems a crime on or near campus to pose a serious or ongoing threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first campus-wide email alert did not occur until Oct. 16, after lehighvalleylive.com reached out to the college regarding the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic Safety evaluated the report under the College\u2019s Clery Act procedures and determined that it did not present an ongoing or continuing threat to the campus community,\u201d according to the college\u2019s alert.<\/p>\n
Baratta disagreed with the college\u2019s assessment that the reported rape did not present an ongoing threat to the campus community.<\/p>\n
While Public Safety\u2019s initial investigation determined that a timely warning was unnecessary, Laura Dunn, a New York City civil and victims\u2019 rights attorney, said its response was not necessarily standard practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of campuses issue timely warnings for sexual assaults of all different natures, even if it\u2019s, for example, relationship violence,\u201d said Dunn, adding that schools particularly do so when a perpetrator is still unidentified. \u201cA lot of good schools will still issue a timely warning and just remind people about resources on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Troxell, Lafayette\u2019s Director of Public Safety, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Baratta also claimed that he was \u201cwholly uncomfortable with the statement that the public safety department determined there\u2019s no issue,\u201d and urged students to \u201cremain vigilant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campus-wide email alert also claimed the report that Public Safety received contained \u201climited information\u201d and that \u201cno criminal complaint has been filed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives from both Public Safety and the District Attorney\u2019s Office met the following morning, during which college representatives \u201creviewed the steps it had taken, and provided the College\u2019s detailed report,\u201d per the campus-wide email.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that meeting, no concerns were raised about the College\u2019s handling of the kit or the report,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
The college released its Monday statement following comments Baratta made to lehighvalleylive.com earlier that day. Baratta raised concerns regarding alleged mishandling of a rape kit received by the college; the college\u2019s statement confirmed Public Safety received the kit at 8 p.m. on Oct. 4, shortly after being notified of the rape.<\/p>\n
Baratta claimed he had received a phone call from Public Safety in which the caller said the office did not know what to do with the kit. The college argued the kit was \u201cpreserved exactly as Pennsylvania law requires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baratta went on to say that the college should have \u201clearned\u201d from the alleged gang rape at Cornell University that gained national attention this fall. Vice President of Communications Kristen Daily called the comparison \u201cunjustified\u201d in a statement to lehighvalleylive.com. Baratta urged the victim to come forward and cooperate with law enforcement for the investigation, saying the victim would not lose their confidentiality by doing so.<\/p>\n
The college\u2019s statement referred to Pennsylvania\u2019s Sexual Assault Testing and Evidence Collection Act, which grants victims of sexual assault the right to have evidence collected without reporting to police, having the evidence tested or pursuing a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice for survivors begins with respect for their choices,\u201d the college\u2019s statement reads.<\/p>\n
A working group focused on sexual assault prevention and victim advocacy was announced in a joint statement from Lafayette and the Northampton County District Attorney\u2019s Office on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good that the district attorney and law enforcement are trying to signal that they care and want to help,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cBut the way to do that isn\u2019t to pressure survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to be part of the community every day, all day and routinely sending messages that they care about sexual assault and will do everything they can when it happens to investigate properly and bring offenders to justice,\u201d Dunn continued.<\/p>\n
Dunn pointed to the 12-year statute of limitations for rape cases in the state of Pennsylvania as allowing victims to come forward in their own time.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserving the kit ensures it will be available if the person chooses to come forward, now or in the future,\u201d according to the college\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
Baratta did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
A correction was made on Oct. 23, 2026: A previous version of this article stated that the alleged rape occurred sometime after midnight the evening before its report on Oct. 4. Lafayette College\u2019s Public Safety crime log entry did not specify when after midnight the incident occurred.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lafayette College\u2019s handling of an alleged rape earlier this month has drawn criticism from Northampton County\u2019s top law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-312576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}