PHILADELPHIA — A status hearing Dec. 17 set the preliminary hearing date for five University of Pennsylvania students charged with assaulting a Princeton debater for Feb. 21.
The preliminary hearing, which will determine whether the evidence against the students warrants a trial, will be held at the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia.
Four of the suspects — David Hochfelder, Philip Balderston, Tavraj Banga and Steven Stolk — appeared before Judge Marsha Neifield and signed subpoenas for the Feb. 21 hearing. The fifth suspect, Thomas Bispham Jr., was taking an exam at Penn and did not appear in court.
The five allegedly kicked and poured motor oil on John Brantl '05, threatening to light him on fire and making him promise never to return to Penn. Brantl was attending a debate tournament Nov. 16 when the incident occurred.
The students are charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person's life, terroristic threats and conspiracy to commit a crime. Aggravated assault, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years, and criminal conspiracy are felonies in Pennsylvania.
Each student, with the exception of Stolk, had his own defense attorney at the status hearing. Jeffrey Kolarsky, representing Bispham; Frank DeSimone, representing Banga; Carmen Nasute, representing Hochfelder; and Felipe Restrepo, representing Balderston agreed to the hearing date. Jules Epstein, Stolk's lawyer, did not attend the status hearing.
The district attorney filed an oral motion to extend the 120-day rule for preliminary hearings, as dictated by the Pennsylvania Legal Code.
Feb. 21 is the earliest preliminary hearing date consistent with the court calendar, Neifeld said.
The students were arrested in November and released on $10,000 bail each. The criminal investigation ended with the arrests, said Bill Danks, deputy chief of investigations for Penn Police.
"We're all just sitting here waiting for the hearing," Danks said.
Penn's Office of Student Conduct is "still deep in their investigation," which is independent of the criminal proceedings, Danks said. Student conduct office representatives declined to comment on the investigation.
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