Editor's note: The information in this story comes directly from Ohio University Police Department and Athens Municipal Court records.
Michael Koerner stood outside the room in Scott Quad in November of 2004, shaking his head as two Ohio University police officers walked toward him.
He's out of control tonight
Koerner told the officers.
Officers Michael Trout and Joshua Durst were looking for then-freshman John Fry, who appeared to be drunk again. Koerner described his roommate's drunkenness as a nightly occurrence. Durst and Trout also had learned from Herbert Blankson, the resident director of Scott Quad, that Fry had sprayed a fire extinguisher and chased female residents in the dorm.
One of the residents, Lauren Toth, had left her room briefly and returned to find the door dripping wet from a fire extinguisher, so she woke her roommate, Samantha Sommer. While looking at the door, they saw Fry stumbling toward them.
My gut reaction was fear Sommer wrote in a signed statement to police, because he is always drunk and has a really bad reputation of taking advantage of girls.
They ran back into their room and locked the door. As Fry tried to get in, Sommer grabbed her can of pepper spray and the two students sat on Sommer's bed.
Eventually, the doorknob stopped turning and Toth and Sommer went to find Blankson to tell him what happened. But as they knocked on the RD's door, Fry walked up behind them, warning them not to talk about the incident.
They ran into the women's bathroom, still holding the pepper spray. Fry followed them and grabbed the can.
I was scared he would spray it at us Toth wrote. Fry covered part of the bathroom wall with the spray, as Toth and Sommer screamed at him to stop. They darted upstairs, where he followed them and then back to the second floor, where Fry had set off an alarm. During the commotion, another student had contacted the police.
When the officers finally entered his room, they saw an apparently intoxicated Fry, who started yelling when asked about the fire extinguisher. Trout and Durst placed handcuffs on him and, when he continued to resist, they applied joint locks.
For the Nov. 17 incidents, Fry was found guilty in Athens Municipal Court of criminal mischief, criminal trespassing and menacing, and a disorderly conduct charge was dismissed, according to court records. He was ordered to perform 12 hours of community service, pay $480 in fines, avoid contact with Sommer and Toth for 30 days and serve a two-year probation.
Less than a week later, Fry accosted Toth and Sommer in Nelson Dining Hall.
Do you realize you guys got me kicked out of the fucking dorm
and got me arrested
and I had to walk down Court Street in a fucking orange jumpsuit
he told them, according to Toth's statement.
The women left Nelson, with Fry calling after them.
Fry faced another menacing charge but pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of intoxication.
Judy Piercy, who worked in the Department of Residence Life and now serves as interim director, advised that he be banned from campus.
Fry had conflicts with the university before then. In February of 2004, he replied to an e-mail from the Russ College of Engineering and Technology by calling Colleen Girton, the director of external relations, a biotch. The response went out to all undergraduates in the engineering college. Dean Dennis Irwin forwarded the information to University Judiciaries and to Tony Camechis, then the chief of OUPD.
Irwin told the student he wanted to meet with him as soon as possible, though not before Fry responded with another vulgar e-mail to a Russ staff member. Girton said after OU President Roderick McDavis recently suspended Fry, Irwin saw no reason to investigate further.
OUPD cannot comment on the investigation into the most recent incident allegation against Fry, a Jan. 19 assault, because the case is ongoing. Sommer, Toth and Koerner did not return calls seeking comment last week.
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Justin Thompson
