By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 9, 1998

Police Beat

A student called university police Monday and told them he believes his ex-roommate sabotaged his computer while he lived at La Paz Residence Hall, 602 N. Highland Ave.

The student told police somebody gained access to his computer in his old room March 31 and deleted a lot of his personal files before his recent move to Hopi Residence Hall, 1440 E. Fourth St.

The student, Brandon W. Arnold, 19, left La Paz following his arrest on assault charges March 30 after allegedly hitting his roommate on the head with a 5-pound weight.

He is now accusing the roommate of tampering with his computer.

Arnold told police his computer was missing a great deal of memory and would no longer "boot up," and that the only thing left on the computer was "pornography."

He called the university's Center for Computer and Information Technology for help and was told that whoever accessed his computer had extensive knowledge about the system, police reports stated.

Arnold told police he suspected his ex-roommate of the foul deed because he has a vast knowledge of computers and had access to the room. Arnold said he was filing a police report at the request of his "legal team," reports stated.

Police later talked to the accused roommate, who said he had no knowledge of the files on Arnold's computer, reports stated.

The man told police he had used the computer with Arnold's permission to access the Internet in the past but did not use it on the date in question. He added that his ex-roommate's computer could have been damaged when he moved out, reports stated.

Two students were diverted to the Dean of Students Diversion Program Tuesday after a Coronado Hall resident assistant discovered contraband inside their flooded room at the dorm, 822 E. Fifth St.

The RA told police she had to enter the sixth-floor room at 4:30 p.m. because a large amount of water had seeped from under the door and into the hallway.

Instead of finding the occupants inside the room, the RA found a faucet spewing water into a clogged bathroom sink and noticed an almost-empty 750-milliliter bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey sitting on the television, police reports stated.

The RA shut off the water and also discovered a green two-liter bottle with dryer sheets stuffed inside and then phoned police, who met her in front of the room 10 minutes later, reports stated.

Police confiscated the whiskey and two-liter bottle after they determined it had a "strong odor" of marijuana and had been used as a smoke diffuser. The officers then returned to university police headquarters, reports stated.

The RA called police again about 6 p.m. when the two residents returned to their room, reports stated.

One of the students told police he knew why they were there and said the bottle of Jack Daniels was his and the two-liter bottle had in fact been used to hide the odor of marijuana. He added that they would not have been caught had the sink not overflowed, reports stated.

The officer then told the students, both 19, that they would be referred to the Dean of Students Diversion Program, reports stated.

A employee called police Tuesday after he discovered somebody had taken an essential brake part from the UA-owned truck he was driving.

The employee told police the truck had been parked near the west side of Arizona Stadium, 530 N. Vine Ave., since it was last used on March 22.

The employee told police he went to use the 1975 International flatbed truck at 1 p.m. on Tuesday and quickly discovered after he put the truck into gear that it had no brakes.

The employee was able to bring the truck to a halt and discovered that the power brake booster normally located under the cab was missing, police reports stated.

The employee told police he had informed the UA motor pool of the incident and did not know who could have taken the part, reports stated.

Police Beat is compiled from official University of Arizona Police Department reports.