By Kyle Peveto, Staff Writer
A masked man harassed two groups of ACU women Sept. 9 until he was stopped by campus and local police.
No charges were filed because he broke no laws, but he was issued a trespass warning, which prohibits him from setting foot on campus, said Jimmy Ellison, chief of university police and director of Public Safety.
The man approached two women jogging next to Ambler Avenue near Oliver Jackson Boulevard and later harassed a group of women who live at 833 E.N. 16th St.
The incidents occurred between 8 and 11 p.m. The man wore a white mask similar to that worn by killer Mike Myers in the Halloween movie series.
“We were seriously traumatized,” said Morgan Flowers, junior interior design major from Coppell.
The man drove by and later parked in front of Flowers’ house during a “pi–ata party” the girls were having on their front lawn.
After she rushed in the house and called 911, the police came and questioned the man. Later in the night he came back and yelled from across the street at the house asking for someone to speak with him, said Celeste Turner, a junior integrated marketing communication major from Lubbock.
ACU and Abilene police questioned the man, a student at Cisco Junior College preparing to attend ACU.
The incident was not a stalking case but was a case of harassment. No charges could be filed because it “didn’t qualify as a criminal offense,” Ellison said. ACU police did all that could be done by issuing a trespass warning.
Texas Penal Code chapter 42.072 calls stalking an offense that occurs when a person on more than one occasion knowingly engages in conduct that makes a another person fear injury, death or that an offense will be committed against themselves or their family. A complete copy of the statute can be found at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pe/pe0004200.html.
Cases of stalking or harassment are rare at ACU, Ellison said. The police department encourages students to let administrators or the police know about cases of either stalking or harassment that occur on campus.
“We like to know about it early on so we can keep it from getting out of hand,” Ellison said.
