by Scott Mac Kay
Staff Writer
Police are investigating an altercation at a local bar between University of La Verne students that occurred March 29.
Shortly before 2 a.m., junior Jamie Bigornia called the La Verne Police Department (LVPD) from his home and informed them that he was assaulted while at Nick’s Place in downtown La Verne and had fled home.
“It is still under investigation, I expect to have the case to the district attorney by the first part of next week,” said LVPD Detective Scott Pickwith, who is investigating the incident.
Though no arrests have been made, two ULV students were questioned by the police. The students told the Campus Times they were instructed by Pickwith not to make any statements regarding the case because it is still under investigation.
“I just saw them staring, two guys looking at me. When I knew they were looking at me, I decided to leave,” Bigornia said.
According to Bigornia, one of the individuals approached him and asked, “Are you a faggot?”
“He harassed me four or five times, and I think the sixth time I said ‘yes,’ and then everything happened,” Bigornia said.
Bigornia said he was pushed back and then hit in the back of the head by another individual, and that he fell to the ground. He also said he was then punched in the forehead until his friend, senior Skip Sams, pulled him up.
“I pulled Jamie up; we were climbing over stools, literally right in front of the door,” Sams said. “I went to the double doors in the front. The one to the right was locked. I tried to open that one, and someone pushed Jamie into the door.
“The bartender was yelling, ‘Get him out of here. Just get the faggot out of here,’” Sams said.
Bigornia said one bystander helped the situation by holding back the crowd.
Bigornia and Sams ran out while a friend, Melissa Dillon, was able to stop the assailant from following them.
“I think Jamie wanted to stay and stand up for himself but one of the guys came out and started to chase us,” Sams said.
According to Mary Anne Sellers, a friend of Bigornia’s who remained at the bar, LVPD responded to a 1:39 a.m. anonymous call from Nick’s Place, but declined to take action because Bigornia was not present.
“I had [an] indentation on my forehead from the force of the punch. I went to see a doctor a couple of days after; he said it was post traumatic fatigue, disorientation and nausea,” he said.
The case is listed as violation of penal code 422.6, misdemeanor assault. Pending results of the investigation, it could be upgraded to a felony count.
“When it’s in the legal system, although people may want to share their side of the story, if it’s under police investigation they may be reluctant to do that at this time,” said Dr. Loretta Rahmani, dean of student affairs.
President Stephen Morgan issued a University-wide memorandum condemning the incident.
“I had been informed of the alleged incident,” said Dr. Morgan. “It motivated me to want to say to the campus community that, short of defending one’s self from bodily harm, a physical assault is never appropriate.”
Currently, the University has no plans to take disciplinary action against any of the parties involved.
“When you start taking responsibility for students off campus, you open a legal Pandora’s Box,” said Dr. Rahmani.
Dr. Morgan said, “If you take on the responsibility for disciplining students off campus, you then take on a greater responsibility for their behavior, and, in today’s litigious society, you can be held responsible for that behavior.”
“It’s unfortunate that I have to swallow that kind of inconsistent policy,” said Bigornia. “I want to see the kids kicked out of school. If they go to college, they should have the respect for people, and not expect everyone to be the same as them.”
“If we felt there was a threat to any of the campus community, we would do a University administrative order saying that they could not come in contact with the student,” said Dr. Rahmani. “What I can do is call them into my office and have a discussion with them and put them on notice that this is not tolerated behavior for us. If this ever happens on campus then we will go through our judicial system as well as refer it to the police.”
Under the Family Information Rights Protection Act, University officials cannot comment on any disciplinary action taken toward students.
“I know the students are frustrated because we cannot share information, but we’re abiding by federal laws of privacy,” said Dr. Morgan. “If you were on the other end of this, you would be glad for those laws.”
“I don’t want this to be swept under the rug,” said Bigornia.
Dr. Morgan said he hopes that the La Verne community can “if not embrace people’s differences, tolerate their differences. Ideally, we would embrace differences. Practically, we would at least tolerate these differences.”
“This is a critical incident where there can be a learning experience,” said Dr. Rahmani. “If anyone on the campus wants to share concerns regarding any of this, they need to contact anyone in Student Affairs.”
“I do not want to denigrate the University or turn my back on the University, because the University has been there for me all this time. However, the University should look at their policies and rethink how they deal with this stuff,” Bigornia said.
