Two rape attempts reported at Mount Olive College dorms
By Nelson Bland
Published in News on November 9, 2011 1:46 PM
An attempted rape at Mount Olive College's men's dormitory is being investigated by Mount Olive Police.
The victim is a 19-year-old female, according to police reports.
The incident was the second attempted rape at the college that police have investigated recently; the other one occurred on Oct. 5.
Police said the latest incident happened Nov. 1 at Grantham Hall dorm on the campus of the college.
The victim knows the suspect, according to the report.
A third party -- a female who knows the victim -- reported the incident on behalf of the victim, officers said.
A police investigator met with the victim at a college dorm and the victim said she had gone to the dorm room of the suspect "to hang out with him" when the incident occurred.
The police report noted that the victim told police that while she was "hanging out with" the suspect he forced her onto the bed against her will and she "began telling (him) to get off of her."
The victim reported that the suspect was holding her down by her wrists and "began kissing her on the mouth and neck and fondling her."
Police said that as the victim resisted the suspect "told her to be quiet."
The victim told police that at this point she began "yelling at" and "pushing" the suspect before escaping the room.
In the first incident of a reported attempted rape at the college last month in a girls dormitory, police said a 17-year-old female victim and the suspect were both students at the college.
The police report on the latest incident did not specify if either the suspect or victim is a student at the college, other that the reported incident occurred in the suspect's dorm room and the victim's home address is Kinston.
Police said in both incidents the victims knew their attackers.
There have been no charges and investigations in both cases are continuing, police said.
Chief Brian Rhodes, who has been with the Mount Olive Police Department since 1987, said the report of the alleged rape in October and the alleged attempted rape this month are the first such incidents that he knows about being reported at Mount Olive College.
Because of an ongoing investigation Rhodes could not comment on whether the two incidents are related, but said both victims and both suspects are students at the college.
"These are the first two alleged rape or attempted rape incidents that I can remember being reported at the college or any elsewhere involving students of the college," Rhodes said. "Rape is a very unusual crime for us."