The Daily Collegian Online	 - Published independently by students at Penn State NEWS
[ Tuesday, May 1, 2007 ]

Sexual assaults reported

Collegian Staff Writer

In separate incidents, two Penn State students reported they were sexually assaulted by men unknown to them over the weekend, according to State College police.

A Penn State student was possibly sexually assaulted at an apartment at The Collegian, 217 S. Atherton St., between Friday night and Saturday morning, police said. Police said an investigation is ongoing and the woman said the suspect was unknown to her. Further details were not available last night.

In a separate incident, a Penn State student told police she awoke on her friend's couch at University Terrace, 825 Bellaire Ave., Sunday morning to find an unknown man touching her inappropriately.

Penn State student Mario De La Ossa (freshman-engineering) has been charged with two counts of aggravated indecent assault and two counts of indecent assault for allegedly penetrating the woman with his finger while she was asleep. According to court documents, De La Ossa said he was asleep and could not have done it.

De La Ossa was arraigned before Centre County District Judge Thomas Jordan Sunday and his bail was set at $25,000 straight. His preliminary hearing is set for 1 p.m. May 9 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte.

The woman said she fell asleep at her friend's apartment following a party Saturday night and panicked after waking up and seeing De La Ossa, whom she said she had never seen before, lying beside her on the couch, according to the criminal complaint.

The woman told State College police she ran upstairs to alert her sleeping friends but instead returned downstairs and slapped De La Ossa, who was sleeping on the couch, and began yelling at him about what he allegedly did, according to court documents.

When De La Ossa was unresponsive, the woman ran upstairs again and yelled for her friends, according to the documents. By the time her male friend came downstairs, De La Ossa was gone, according to the complaint.

De la Ossa was identified as the suspect by the woman's friends living at the apartment, and the woman confirmed he was the man who assaulted her, police said.

De La Ossa said he entered the apartment after leaving another room on the same floor. He said he saw the two couches pushed together where the woman was sleeping, but he laid down without seeing the woman because she was covered in a thick comforter, according to court documents.

De la Ossa said he was asleep and could not have done it, but he may have rolled over while asleep and accidentally touched the woman's crotch area, according to court documents.

He told police he had consumed six beers and five large vodka and cokes during the night and only remembered lying down on the couch and waking up when being slapped, according to the complaint. He told police he did not remember anything in between and did not know the woman, according to the complaint.


 



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