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From sexual assault allegations to bias incidents, crimes of the 2016-17 year

April 27, 2017
<p>The MSU police building.</p>

The MSU police building.

From clowns to squirrels to joyrides, the 2016-17 academic school year saw a wide variety of crimes.

The weird and wacky

On Sept. 19, 2016, East Lansing police responded to a call about a squirrel that had been shot by a bow and arrow. The squirrel, named ‘Thin Lizzie’ by the East Lansing couple who would feed the squirrels, was freed from the arrow and released back into the wild.

There is a 90-day misdemeanor for firing a weapon within East Lansing city limits, but ELPD did not investigate the crime because there was not a way to start the process, former ELPD Lt. Scott Wriggelsworth said in a State News article.

In October, the United States and the Lansing area experienced the "clown craze."

Although there were no confirmed clown sightings on campus, a 12-year-old girl allegedly chased other kids with two knives while wearing a clown mask at an East Lansing middle school.

Also in October, an MSU student allegedly damaged multiple vehicles during "slow-speed pursuit" in which the suspect was intoxicated.

Data and politics

On Nov. 13, 2016, MSU suffered from a data breach that exposed approximately 400,000 records and 449 of the records were confirmed to be compromised.

MSU provided free credit monitoring to all individuals who might have been affected by the breach.

From Nov. 8, 2016 to Dec. 6, 2016, MSU experienced three politically-motivated bias incidents. Two of the cases were simple assaults and battery and the third harassment: designated prohibitions.

When Milo Yiannopoulos visited campus on Dec. 7, 2016, he was met by protesters. Six of the protestors were arrested that night.

Five of the protesters paid a $130 civil infraction, while one faces charges of disorderly and unauthorized assembly and failure to obey a police officer. A jury will be picked for his trial on May 9.

Assault allegations

MSU has experienced a myriad of issues with sexual assault since Jan. 1.

On Feb. 9 MSU announced three football players and a staff member were suspended from the team because of sexual assault allegations.

The victim's attorney confirmed the alleged assault occurred on Jan. 16.

Former MSU football player Auston Robertson was removed from the team after he was charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct on April 21.

He was arraigned on April 25 at 55th District Court and he will wait until after his preliminary examination to enter a plea.

MSU football defensive end Demetrius Cooper was charged with a misdemeanor assault and battery on Feb. 9.

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Former MSU basketball star Mateen Cleaves had sexual assault charges reinstated against him on April 10, according to a State News article.

His case has been bound over to district court and no date has been set for his pretrial, according to 67th District Court records.

A sexual assault near Beaumont Tower was reported on April 21.

According to MSUPD's Facebook, the suspect is "a white male, 20-25 years old, short brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a black shirt, unknown color pants, and he may have hairy arms."

Crime by numbers

According to the Clery Crime and Fire Log, since Jan. 25 there have been a plethora of crimes.

There have been 98 incidents of larceny, ranging from theft from a motor vehicle, theft from a building and larceny other.

Sixteen non-aggravated assaults have been reported to MSUPD and 10 cases of intimidation/stalking were reported.

Five cases of criminal sexual conduct have been reported since Jan. 25, including the alleged assault near Beaumont Tower.

For a full list of crimes, visit the crime log.

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