Police close investigation into Tiger Inn sex photo scandal, no charges filed

No criminal charges will be filed in last October’s reported distribution of a photo featuring a sex act that took place at Tiger Inn.

The Princeton Police Department announced in a press release on Friday afternoon that it had found no evidence to support criminal wrongdoing and closed the investigation. The investigation included interviewing all involved parties.

The incident was reported to police on Nov. 20, almost a month after the email was sent, and labeled an “Invasion of Privacy” investigation. In the University’s daily crime logs, maintained by the Department of Public Safety, it was reported as a potential sexual assault case.

“All we can say is that no one wants to pursue the case, and there are no criminal charges,” Sgt. Steven Riccitello said. “We interviewed all parties involved.” The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office was also consulted in the matter, the release said.

Riccitello later added that the photo did not explicitly depict any intimate body parts engaged in a sex act.

TI graduate board members Hap Cooper ’82 and Eric Pedersen ’82, and current TI president Oliver Bennett ’15 did not respond to requests for comment immediately following the announcement. Pedersen and Cooper did not respond to additional requests for comment over the weekend.

The police announcement came the same day as over 100 TI alumni who graduated in the 1990s published a letter in The Daily Princetonian condemning the series of events that have taken place at the club, criticizing the measures the graduate board has taken so far and suggesting that TI be shut down for the time being.

“Rather than hoping to address this through the least amount of punishment,” the letter read, “the Graduate Board would do better to start from the other direction and consider whether the club should continue operating at the present time and, if so, what conditions the club and its members should be required to meet.”

The University’s investigation of the incident is still ongoing, University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said, and is separate from that of the police. Mbugua added that significant progress had been made.

The investigation is ongoing for a case of sexual exploitation, which is defined in Rights, Rules Responsibilities as “any act whereby one person violates the sexual privacy of another.”

The photo allegedly showed an oral sex act that took place in a public area of the eating club. After its distribution, the TI graduate board chose to fire the officer who sent it via email to members, TI vice president Adam Krop ’15. Treasurer Andrew Hoffenberg ’15 was also fired after sending another email encouraging members to “boo” Sally Frank ’80, an activist whose lawsuit forced TI and Ivy Club to admit female members, at her speech last month.

After the emails were widely reported in the media, the TI graduate board chose to fire both Krop and Hoffenberg as officers.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The firing took place over a month after both emails were distributed to the membership, a comparatively slow reaction time compared to the firing of four officers earlier this year after they allowed a party of the semi-secret drinking society known as the 21 Club to take place. In that case, the four officers — which included the then-president — were fired within 24 hours of the incident.