by Christine Owen
Editor in Chief
A University of La Verne student was taken to the hospital on Sept. 30 after a physical altercation with another student, La Verne Police reported.
La Verne police were called to the Oaks at 2:11 a.m. after receiving a fight-in-progress call from the ULV Campus Safety Department, according to a police report.
The alleged fight took place at the Oaks between freshman Lyssa Ortiz and sophomore Amy Smith, a La Verne police department official confirmed.
Smith is an outside hitter for the ULV women’s volleyball team. Witnesses said that several members of the team were present when the fight was taking place.
Both Smith and Ortiz declined to comment on the incident, stating that there was an ongoing investigation.
Captain Ken Swank of the La Verne Police Department said that there is still an ongoing investigation into the incident. “We plan to present it [the case] to the D.A. for possible filing of charges,” Swank said. “We have a person who has logged a complaint.”
Swank said that the charges that would be brought to the District Attorney are misdemeanor, assault and battery. He said that each party involved is blaming the other one.
John Lentz, director of campus safety and transportation, said that on the morning in in question, campus safety officers responded twice to the incident in the Oaks.
“The first time they responded, they only contacted the person who had requested their presence. The second time they responded, the incident was broken up upon their arrival,” Lentz said.
“They [Campus Safety] encountered a student who reported that she had been a victim of an attack,” he said.
Lentz confirmed Campus Safety took this individual to the hospital on Sunday morning.
Because of the period of time that the student would have to wait to be seen, Lentz said “the student made the decision not to wait and requested to be transported back to campus.”
Don Flora, head women’s volleyball coach also declined to comment on the situation involving his players, but issued a written statement.
“With the information to date, the Women’s Volleyball Program has taken action concerning the unfortunate events of 9/30/01. The student-athlete involved will miss all volleyball related playing on 10/01/01 and 10/02/01,” Flora said in the statement.
Smith, an outside hitter who is usually on the starting roster for the women’s team sat out the Oct. 2 game against Claremont.
Volleyball team members also declined to comment on the situation.
Lentz said that not every dispute on campus would elicit a call to the police.
“Our policy here is that if we have an incident where there is a question, where we need the expertise of a police officer to kind of give us some guidance regarding a possible or potential criminal matter, then we always call La Verne P.D.,” Lentz said. “It was to have them document the incident as well as to gain their expertise.”
“If it’s a very minor situation where both parties stay there and it’s resolved at the scene, then no, they wouldn’t call LVPD for assistance,” he said.
Lentz said that he is continuing to meet with witnesses to determine exactly what took place Sept. 30.
The Office of Housing and Residential Life is also involved and meeting with Lentz as well as Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Ruby Montaño-Cordova.
Montaño-Cordova said that she is meeting with Housing, and that they are interviewing students, to which policy guidelines were violated.
Both parties involved live on campus.
“If a decision is made that policy violations occurred, then there are sanctions,” she said.
