News | Arts | Reviews | Features | Opinion | Sports | Staff | Archives | Email the Editor | Email the Webmaster
by Christine Hancock
Staff Writer
When Grinnell Police Sgt. Randy Hanssen lamented over the pressure surrounding him to quickly close the case, he had no idea how long he would end up waiting.
“People have to understand that this is not a TV show,” he said in a May 1997 interview with the S&B. “You don’t solve a case in an hour.”
That was over five years ago. Now he can only describe the process with an air of resignation, something nearing a sigh. “It’s been a long and drug-out thing.”
Though the wait is far from over, Joe Smith* ’97 remains in Scotland Yard custody for charges of sexual abuse in the second degree stemming from an alleged rape in a Grinnell campus dorm April 30, 1997.
Explaining the worthwhile if seemingly excruciating inquiry process in the 1997 interview, Hanssen addressed the concerns of students anxious for an arrest. “Investigations are conducted very thoroughly,” he said. “Every option and piece of information is followed up. We comply with all criminal laws; we collect physical evidence and statements.”
Such diligence brought little comfort to the campus at the time, when one week after the annual Take Back the Night march, a man, his face partially obscured by something similar to a ski mask, walked into an unlocked dorm room and raped a 19-year-old female on a Wednesday night during finals week.
The campus erupted in anxiety and heightened security measures. Up to that point, a combination of the Grinnell Police Department and Facilities Management predominantly addressed security issues. After the assault, the administration hired Wells Fargo Security of North Dakota to provide additional protection—the Security Office itself did not exist until July 13, 1998. In other immediate actions, residence halls went on 24 hour lock-up, and escort services increased staff and extended hours.
The administration had previously talked of creating a separate security department, and many used the incident as an example to express support for new safety measures. However, according to Vice President for Student Services Tom Crady, the incident and the creation of the new department were not “ultimately related.”
“We need someone who is more specialized in dealing with security and crime so we can do our job better,” Dean for Student Life Jennifer Krohn told the S&B in 1997.
In addition to the new Security Office, which now has an officer specifically trained to handle sexual assault cases, an electronic lock system was added to all residence halls the semester following the attack. The policy for sexual misconduct was also rewritten extensively.
Much of this was a response to student-led cries for change. “The mood of the campus at that time was one of fear and anxiety,” said Crady.
Kara Murphy ‘97, a friend of Smith’s, recalls an awkward, intense atmosphere. “I remember considerable fear, and a sense of violation, a disbelief that this could happen in our little Iowa sanctuary,” she said.
An unnamed senior female voiced similar views in 1997. “In the four years that I’ve been here, I’ve always felt relatively safe,” she told the S&B. “I don’t feel that way anymore.”
Murphy also remembers students’ responses to others. “People definitely became more vigilant. They became more suspicious of unknown faces, and rumors were rampant.”
In the preceding months, news of a serial rapist had spread across Midwestern college campuses. Many immediately associated the Grinnell case with that of the serial rapist, but the eventual allegation of a student made the crime no more understandable.
“When the rumors surfaced that a member of the student body was responsible, I was shocked, and naively disillusioned,” said Murphy. “When the rumors broke that it was someone I knew, I cried.”
She still struggles to reconcile her memories with the rumors. “After six years, it’s hard to separate truth from perception,” she said. “The truth is, I consider [Joe Smith] a good friend. He’s a charming, idiosyncratic, intelligent guy. As freshmen on a close-knit floor, we spent untold hours hanging out, talking, studying, and (not) studying. His behavior with female friends was warm, sometimes flirtatious, but basically appropriate and respectful. That was the Joe I knew.”
Heading abroad
One warrant, one missing suspect, five government agencies and five years later, Scotland Yard forces arrested Smith in London Jan. 15.
The Grinnell Police Department has been working with the FBI and the INS to locate Smith since June of 1997. At that time, police made a connection with to the victim’s statement that Smith had “reported to the room uninvited” prior to the rape. Officials established probable cause and received an arrest warrant.
Police now believe that Smith, aware of the ongoing investigation, may have been in the Grinnell area at the time. Unable to find Smith in his “last known residence,” the police asked friends for his whereabouts. Although the friends did not provide information to the police, they presumably provided it to Smith.
“He absconded from the area at that time,” Hanssen said.
Over the spring of 1997, Murphy and Smith spoke “a number of times about the case. He always maintained his innocence,” she said. Yet she believes that Smith’s decision to leave the country left the public with an impression of wrongdoing, “whatever the truth was.”
“If he fled out of fear when the truth was that he didn’t commit the crime, he made things much more difficult for himself,” she said.
For Smith, things appeared to have grown difficult even prior to leaving the country. According to Murphy, other students—perhaps friends of the victim—“physically assaulted” Smith. “I don’t know the details leading to the fight,” she said. “But there was this vigilante mob mentality associated with the violence which was really disquieting.”
In apparent attempts to assuage his difficulties, Smith’s “known associates” have periodically contacted the Grinnell Police since 1997, inquiring about the status of the warrant and bond, according to Hanssen. Allegedly planning to raise the bond money, turn himself in, “post the bond and then be released,” Smith “knew about the arrest warrant himself,” Hanssen said. “He knew he was evading arrest.”
That Smith, a native Russian, obviously had contacts outside of the United States led Grinnell authorities to seek assistance from other agencies. “We went through the FBI and INS to enter a warrant through that system,” Hanssen said. When forces located Smith in London, Scotland Yard made the arrest. The U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Attorney’s Office were also involved in the case, providing officers and filing paperwork, respectively.
“It’s been a long process and a difficult one,” Hanssen said. “But with all the agencies working together as a team, positive results can and do happen. And this time, they did happen.”
College officials expressed similarly positive views of the arrest. Receiving police updates every four months, the incident never escaped their consciousness.
“The Grinnell Police Department has kept very much in touch with us,” Crady said. He said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the case development.
Krohn voiced “a sense of relief that this guy’s finally been caught.”
Murphy hopes for “healing for the victim, and justice for everyone involved.”
At the time, students hoped for not only justice, but also change.
S&B columnist Darryl Roberts wrote: “If students, faculty and administration make a commitment to working towards implementing tangible changes in the campus environment… we can heal the wounds, attend to the scars and quiet the fears that are now shared by many in this college community.”
Smith now begins the extradition process—he may accept or resist his movement back to the Grinnell area for trial. “We have 90 days to file the paperwork,” Hanssen said. “We haven’t been notified of his decision.”
So the waiting continues.
*Name has been changed.