Athens Police confirmed Monday that Ohio University student Rachel Cassidy is not the victim of the alleged rape that took place uptown Homecoming Weekend.
Cassidy, a sophomore studying journalism who was falsely identified as the woman from the incident by website forums, filed a complaint citing "telecommunications harassment" with the Athens Police Department at 3:16 p.m. Monday.
Police then closed the case immediately following, citing jurisdictional issues.
As soon as the case was closed, department officials were able to confirm Cassidy is not the woman involved in the alleged rape complaint because that information is no longer pertaining to an ongoing investigation since Cassidy's complaint had been closed.
The narrative in a police report states that Cassidy notified APD that she was mis-identified as the victim of an alleged sexual assault that occurred in front of Chase Bank, 2 S. Court St., on Oct. 12.
After being wrongly identified as a victim of sexual assault, Cassidy received numerous harassing comments via social media websites, according to the incident report.
That confirms what Cassidy had previously told The Post.
“Wednesday night, my friend called me and said there were pictures posted of me linked to the woman in the video saying I was her, although that’s untrue,” Cassidy said. “I was nowhere near where the incident occurred (on Saturday, Oct. 12). I have no idea why I was targeted.”
Additionally, the report states links to the complainant’s social media contact information were posted on the internet and the harassment she has received has originated from as far off as Australia.
Ohio University Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones confirmed this fact with “100 percent” certainty to The Post in an interview on Saturday.
Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle could not be reached for comment, but the department plans on releasing a statement later Monday.
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