Lamenting what he called Tufts' inadequacy in dealing with the fallout of last semester's Naked Quad Run (NQR), a Somerville district court judge in December suggested that the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) overreacted in arresting a student during NQR, according to a court audio recording obtained by the Daily.
In his comments, made during a Dec. 30 pretrial hearing in the case of the student, a male junior, Somerville District Court Judge Joseph Walker said that misbehavior was to be expected when the university allows an event like NQR — which he said presumably involves intoxicated students — to occur.
"Either they should give the Tufts University police and deputy sheriffs some sensitivity training or give them additional training in terms of what is or what isn't a crime," Walker said at the hearing.
The Middlesex Sheriff's Office provided support to TUPD at the event.
TUPD arrested the junior at the annual end−of−semester run, which took place on Dec. 10, and charged him with assault and battery of a police officer, assault and battery of a correctional officer and resisting arrest. According to witnesses, he had stepped in to prevent officers from catching a naked student who had escaped from their grasp.
The judge said that the case should probably have just been handled internally at Tufts, since incidents inevitably take place during rowdy college events like NQR.
He called into question the police's version of the events surrounding the student's arrest, saying that the junior had admitted to approaching the officers because he thought they might be doing something inappropriate in subduing the naked student.
"How many instances do we have involving the university police, in which they become a little bit excitable and then become a little excessive, you know, in the way they're handling these students?" Walker said. "These are kids. You know, they're not criminals — they're kids.
Walker insisted that he was not condoning misbehavior at collegiate events like NQR.
"But, you know, I've handled thousands of cases that are similar in nature. And, I, I just for the life of me can't figure out the times — Tufts being one of the better schools in the country … their approach in terms of disciplining their own students."
TUPD Capt. Mark Keith yesterday declined to speak about the judge's comments.
"[Once] a matter is before a judge, he/she certainly has the authority to adjudicate the matter in a manner they feel is appropriate," Keith said in an e−mail, adding that it would be inappropriate to comment further since the case against the student had not been resolved in the university's judicial system.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman yesterday also declined to comment on the judge's conclusions.
"I wasn't there; I haven't heard what he said," Reitman said, calling this reporter's reading of the comments hearsay.
The judge's comments came at a time when students had been questioning the administration's account of events at NQR. The administration maintains that police officers did not initiate physical force in shutting down the event earlier than usual, but a number of student participants and witnesses have said police officers overreacted.
Speaking on Jan. 20 about the annual run, Reitman said that the university and the police have never been comfortable managing an event in which they are effectively permitting public nudity to occur and in which they encounter an abnormal amount of alcohol abuse.
"It's something that's against the law on every other day of the year," he said.
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler yesterday in an e−mail said that "Tufts' overall record when it comes to public safety is excellent," but she declined to comment on the specific case of the junior since the issue had not been resolved at Tufts.
The student pled not guilty to all three charges in court, according to Cara O'Brien, a spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.
The judge during the hearing ordered that the student be placed on pretrial probation for about a week for the charge of resisting arrest, pending completion of at least 30 hours of community service and his writing letters of apology to the officers involved.
An official in the court's probation department last month told the Daily that the student had completed any responsibilities he had. O'Brien said yesterday the case had been disposed.
Walker ordered the two counts of assault and battery to be placed on file without a change in plea, effectively suspending action on them indefinitely. The DA's office does not plan to appeal the ruling, O'Brien said.
The judge expressed his desire to speed up a resolution in the junior's case to give him the opportunity to study abroad this semester. He scheduled the pretrial probation period to end a day before the junior, who is spending the semester studying abroad, planned to leave the country.
Tufts' Student Judicial Process policy states that students on probation in the court system "are generally not eligible to be enrolled at the university," and it stipulates that students may not "transfer credits for courses taken elsewhere during the probation."
"I don't want to see a young guy make one mistake in his career that affects him for the rest of his life," Walker said after Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Daniel Harren called the one week of pretrial probation "far too lenient."
A complaint against the junior, filed by TUPD, is pending in the university's judicial system and will be taken up in the fall upon the student's return to campus.
If the student is proven guilty of the charges against him in the university's system — two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, according to Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter — he could face suspension or expulsion. Carter would not confirm the identity of the student, citing normal protocol in such cases, but she did say that the complaint was the only one she could recall that stemmed from the December run.
Multiple times throughout the hearing, Walker drew attention to the fact that the defendant was a college student.
"The bottom line is that, you know, we don't have John Dillinger before the court," he said at one point, referring to the 1930s gangster.
At the end of the proceedings, he repeated that refrain.
"You know, John," Walker can be overheard apparently telling the junior's lawyer, John Salsberg, "in those days that we had real cases, there were real trials. Those were difficult ones."
When asked about the judge's suggestions that the case should not have been brought before the court in the first place, O'Brien said, "The defendant was accused of assaulting a police officer, an offense we take seriously."
The student last month declined to comment on the record while his case is still pending at Tufts. His lawyer, Salsberg, yesterday afternoon did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The case involving the male junior was just one among several student−police confrontations reported by witnesses at the event.
Reitman said last month that university officials had informally discussed the confrontations that took place when TUPD shut down the run. A larger debriefing had not yet occurred, since students had not returned to campus, he said then, although he added that some change to how the event is run was in order.
"I think to go into next year without different plans with how we approach that time of year would be a mistake," he said.
