York Campus graffiti probe takes a turn

By MICHELE E. JOHNSTON
and TERRY WARD
Collegian Staff Writers

A petition has been filed requesting official handwriting samples from York Campus student Aaron West to determine whether the threatening notes he received last semester were written by his own hand.

The petition filed on Dec. 23 by Chief Deputy Prosecutor in York County, Christy H. Fawcett requests that the court order West, former York Campus Student Government Association president, to provide handwriting exemplars to determine whether his handwriting matches that of the threatening note and racial graffiti found at the York Campus on Oct. 20 and Nov. 4.

On Oct. 20, racial graffiti with phrases such as "Aaron West is a nigger" and "white power" were spray-painted on a sidewalk and outside the student affairs building. West also received a threatening note in his mailbox at the student affairs office.

Police discovered "Final warning nigger," spray painted on the sidewalk outside a campus classroom building in the early morning on Nov. 4.

A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 10 to present testimony supporting the allegations in the petition but was rescheduled for April 7 because West did not have an attorney.

According to the petition, after the second incident of racial graffiti was found, West gave Spring Garden Township Police Detective Don Gettys a page of his notebook which contained a sample of his handwriting.

Documents examiner for the State Police Crime Lab, Gene Golbourne, compared West's handwriting sample to the writing on the note and pictures of the graffiti. And Golbourne held a "strong qualified opinion" that the handwriting sample was the same and that the author was the same person, according to the petition. But Golbourne added that a conclusive determination could only be reached by obtaining a specific handwriting exemplar from West.

But when West was asked to provide a handwriting exemplar for analysis he declined to provide it.

According to the petition, on Nov. 3 West requested and received information about what time the York Campus was patrolled by security officers. The second incident of graffiti was discovered by police officers making rounds on the following morning, Nov. 4, Gettys said in November.

Fawcett said West has not been charged with the incidents of graffiti that occured on Oct. 20 and Nov. 4.

Students of all races at the York Campus are dealing with the publicity surrounding West with shock and anger, said Thane Fake, interim York Campus SGA president.

"They don't know what to feel. At this point many students are in limbo," he said, adding that if the allegations against West are proven to be true many students will feel jilted and legitimately upset.

Fake said that the York Campus has a very diverse population and many efforts are being made to encourage cultural diversity and awareness. A racial rift has not occurred at the York Campus, he said, but because of the publicity of the events last semester people may have the mistaken idea that the York Campus is racially divided.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.