TRENTON, N.J.
After a Rider University freshman died following a drinking binge at an on-campus fraternity, prosecutors took the unusual step of indicting two university officials.
At the time, prosecutor Joseph Bocchini Jr., said the move sent a message to students and administrators alike. “The standards of college life, when it relates to alcohol, need to be policed carefully,” he says.
But six months later, chances are no one will go to jail for the 18-year-old’s drinking death, and the prosecutor is being criticized for his handling of the case.
The indictments against the two administrators were dropped, and most of the students indicted will avoid jail time and criminal records.
The prosecutor now says he was unsure from the beginning whether the charges would stick.
“I was grappling with it in my own mind. We were trying to figure out what to do with it,” Bocchini said Wednesday.
In fact, Bocchini says he feels sorry that Anthony Campbell, 52, Rider’s dean of students, and Ada Badgley, 31, the university’s director of Greek life, had to face indictments. But he says the system left him no choice.
“I say, ‘Look, I have a grand jury, a legally constituted body, recognized by the courts, that comes back with this indictment. We have to look at this thoroughly. This is a highly sensitive case,’” Bocchini says.
But critics say that if Bocchini really thought the resulting charges were questionable, he held off too long to drop them.
“He took up the court’s time. He does not get an A-plus for the way he handled this,” says Hank Nuwer, an expert on hazing cases who teaches journalism at Franklin College in Franklin, Ind.
Nuwer says Bocchini’s handling of the case may actually make other prosecutors more hesitant to indict university officials involved with campus crimes.
The outcome has caused further grief for the family of Gary DeVercelly Jr., the fraternity pledge from Long Beach, Calif., who died of alcohol poisoning.
“The family’s upset that it now appears none of the wrongdoers will face any serious criminal consequences for their role in the death of their son,” says attorney Doug Fierberg, retained by DeVercelly’s family.
DeVercelly had a blood-alcohol level of .426 percent, or more than five times New Jersey’s legal limit for driving, when he was pronounced dead March 30, authorities say.
Evidence provided by prosecutors ended up drawing a strong response from the grand jury. “They were upset with the university. This was an emotional case,” Bocchini now says.
Three weeks after he announced the indictments, Bocchini asked a judge to dismiss the counts against the Campbell and Badgley.
Former state attorney general John Farmer Jr. thinks three weeks may have been a long time to wait before trying to get the counts dismissed.
“Being accused is irreparable damage to someone’s life and you need to resolve this as quickly as possible,” Farmer says.
Campbell’s lawyer, Rocco Cipparone Jr., wishes Bocchini had publicized the case in a different way.
“The result was the right result. But the process was something no one wants to go through, especially in a high profile way,” Cipparone says.
But Badgley’s lawyer, David Laigaie, thought Bocchini’s office handled the case appropriately overall.
“It was an investigative grand jury. There’s a limit to a prosecutor’s ability to instruct a grand jury to charge or not to charge,” Laigaie says.
Mitch Crane, a former municipal judge in Pennsylvania and expert on college hazing cases, also didn’t see any obvious problems with the way the Rider case was handled.
Though the charges against the administrators were dropped, the case sent a message that administrators might be criminally responsible for the actions of their students, Crane says.
“In student affairs, there’s a great deal of fear throughout the country that, ‘Gee, I could be arrested and charged for something I wasn’t directly involved with,’” Crane says. “I don’t think the fact these charges were dropped against the dean and the Greek adviser will change that.”
– Associated Press
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