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Colo. State RA suspected of sexually assaulting 4 women

FORT COLLINS, Colo.-Resident assistant applicants undergo an extensive screening process, a series of interviews and numerous days of training which include presentations on preventing sexual assault.

James McElroy, 21, suspected of raping four women while serving as a Parmalee Hall RA at Colorado State University, passed without suspicion.

McElroy was a resident adviser in Ingersoll Hall during the 1997-1998 school year, and in Parmalee Hall during the fall of 1998. He resigned from his post and moved off campus in January 1999, the same month during which two woman spoke to Parmalee's hall director and accused McElroy of sexual assault.

The women did not wish to contact police at that time; however, one woman told her story to campus police in October 1999, kicking off a criminal investigation.

McElroy was arrested Jan. 4 on charges of raping four women in Parmalee Hall during the fall 1998 semester. Police say the assaults occurred while McElroy worked as a Parmalee Hall resident adviser and, in three cases, involved women living on his floor at the time. He will next appear in court Thursday morning.

McElroy did not return calls or e-mails from the Collegian.

University officials and campus police call McElroy's arrest a rare, unforeseeable occurrence.

Students and other resident advisers agree.

"I see that as an isolated fluke," said Brianne Pfaffly, a junior criminal justice major and Corbett RA.

Still, CSU's RA hiring and training processes have come under scrutiny by students.

The RA hiring process does not include criminal background checks, although the possibility has been discussed, said housing administrator Ray Gasser, who coordinates the RA selection process.

However, "no institution we know of does background checks on RAs," Gasser said.

Such checks likely wouldn't have blocked McElroy from his RA position; the CSU Police Department had no record of criminal incidents in his background before a female student told them in October 1999 of an alleged sexual assault.

A more rigorous screening process would likely have little effect, say students.

"I think the only thing that the university could have done to prevent it is to educate the students who live in the dorms more. Screening RAs is probably hard to do," said open option freshmen Sarajane Burr.

RA hiring procedures will be examined, said Mark Denke, vice president for student affairs.

"Certainly, there's already been discussion, looking at procedures-at what we could have done to prevent this from happening," he said.

Procedural changes may still not be able prevent situations like McElroy's arrest an situation Denke labeled "an anomaly."

"I think any time a tragedy like this happens, you always want to evaluate your process," Gasser said. But "I'm not sure anything we could do could uncover this sort of behavior."

Some students feel that nothing could have been done to prevent the alleged crime.

"I feel safe on campus, and I think that the school does a great job of informing everyone, especially women, about the dangers," freshman natural resources, recreation and tourism major Tori Hamm said.

"Something like this could have happened anywhere. There was a breach of trust there. He lured those girls into his room. It wasn't because there wasn't enough lighting outside of his room."

Hamm's comments are echoed by statements of McElroy's alleged victims, who, in CSU Police Department interviews filed with the Larimer County district attorney's office, claim that McElroy was involved in physical relationships with them while they lived on his floor.

RAs are instructed that relationships with residents on their floors are taboo, Gasser said, and current RAs say that message is clear.

"We actually talked about that for quite a while during training. It was made very clear that relationships between RAs and people on their floor were inappropriate," Pfaffly said. "I have yet to come across someone who doesn't understand why the rule is in place."

That rule, however, is informally in place. Campus housing officials defer to university-wide policy, which labels adviser-resident relationships unethical, but doesn't forbid them.

RAs told about the case when they returned to school, but were not required to make any formal announcements to their hall residents. Because RAs receive adequate sexual assault prevention information before the fall semester, the McElroy arrest has not prompted further sexual assault training, Gasser said.

"I've spoken with a few floor members individually," said sophomore Josh Bean, a Corbett RA and business major. "I've sort of taken it as it comes."

Bean said McElroy's arrest will keep him more alert for a while.

"I think, in the weeks following, I'll definitely be more cautious and try and notice how our residents are responding to it," he said.