A Philadelphia Municipal Court dropped all charges Friday against three of five University of Pennsylvania students accused of assaulting a Princeton debate member attending a Penn tournament in November, the Associated Press reported.
The court also reduced the charges of the other two students to misdemeanors and offered them the chance to complete a period of probation after which their criminal records will be deleted, the AP reported.
The students — freshmen David Hochfelder and Philip Balderston, sophomores Thomas Bispham and Tavraj Banga and senior Steven Stolk — faced charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to aggravated assault.
They continue to face charges through Penn's Office of Student Conduct.
The misdemeanor charges remaining against Hochfelder and Bispham are making terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and simple assault, Cohen said, according to an AP report.
The two remaining defendants will return to court on March 7, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
Confidentiality
The case, like all others at the Office of Student Conduct, must remain confidential, a Penn official said. No information regarding the case's development is open to the public.
John Brantl '05 was sleeping in a lounge of the undergraduate Quadrangle dormitory — where the door lock was broken — at Penn with other members of the Princeton debate panel when a man entered the room and began harassing the students, Brantl said.
After Brantl asked him to leave, the student aquiesced, but allegedly returned later with four other men.
The men allegedly kicked Brantl, doused him with motor oil, threatened to set him on fire and forced him to promise never to return to Penn.
The Daily Princetonian was unable to reach Brantl for comment.
The five students turned themselves in a week after the attack, Penn police have said.
Through the OSC, the student disciplinary system has jurisdiction over all four of Penn's undergraduate schools and many graduate programs, according to the website.
If the OSC determines the charged students have broken the Penn Code of Student Conduct, they will face repercussions from the university.
(Senior writer Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this story.)
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