Undergraduate attacked in Township

Update: Francisco Nava '09 has since admitted that he fabricated the assault described in this article. Please see the updated story.

Francisco Nava '09 was physically attacked by two men in Princeton Township Friday evening, reportedly sustaining a concussion but no other serious injuries. The assault comes on the heels of several threatening messages recently sent to Nava, apparently in connection with his involvement with the socially conservative Anscombe Society.

Details of the incident have not been confirmed by Princeton Township Police or the University Medical Center at Princeton, but Nava said in an interview Friday evening that he was walking from a borrowed car to the house of a boy he is mentoring when he was stopped by a man dressed in black and wearing a ski cap. According to Nava, the man said that someone was hurt and asked for his help. A second assailant, who was waiting around the corner, grabbed Nava from behind. Together, the two men checked him against a wall and repeatedly hit his head against the bricks.

"Eventually I just blacked out," Nava said. "I don't remember what happened; I just saw a bunch of white." When he came to, he said, the two men were still hitting him.

Nava said the two men told him to "shut the fuck up" as they left him lying on the ground. Though he was carrying a wallet, credit cards and a cell phone, the assailants did not take any of Nava's belongings.

Nava was brought to the University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP) and released later yesterday evening. No one at UMCP was available for comment over the weekend.

Princeton Township Police also declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

Nava said he was sure the assailants "at least had something to do with" threats he has been receiving since mid-October. He pointed out that his assailants' parting words — "shut the fuck up" — concluded the most recent threat letter he received, an email that arrived Wednesday afternoon.

Nava said the first assailant — the one who lured him around the corner — was blue-eyed, athletic and a little over six feet tall. He said he didn't get a good look at the second one, but that he was also athletic, about four to five inches shorter than the other and wearing Adidas sneakers. Both men were white, and dressed from head to toe in black, he said.

"They were dressed in young people's clothing," he said. "I don't think they were residents of that place."

Nava said that the attack has left him undeterred. "I'm still committed to having the beliefs that I do, and I hope that Princeton will show these two characters that intimidation doesn't work," he said. More to come.

See related:

— Many questions, no answers. Blog post on "The Prox" by Martha Vega. Dec. 16. — Somebody please explain this to me. Blog post on "The Prox" by Stephen Hsia. Dec. 15. — Open season. Column by Brandon McGinley. Dec. 14.

McGinley is a columnist, Vega is a columnist and blogger, and Hsia is a cartoonist and blogger for The Daily Princetonian. Their views are personal and do not represent those of the 'Prince.'