Posted on 04/10/2010 11:18:35 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
PROVO-A Brigham Young University student was arrested on attempted kidnapping and assault charges Thursday after he allegedly used a stun gun on a woman and tried to handcuff her.
Police say Stetson Hallam, 20, was the 19-year-old woman's home teacher in their LDS ward, and the two lived in the same apartment complex south of BYU. Provo police Sgt. Mark Crosby said Hallam had pursued the woman romantically, but she did not have any interest in him. He was persistent in trying to date her, Crosby said, to the point where she felt "creeped out" by Hallam.
"He kind of set her off, that he was just a little weird," Crosby said.
According to a police affidavit, Hallam repeatedly contacted the woman, telling her he had a gift for her. She put off meeting with Hallam until she could have a roommate present, police say, and she was successful until Tuesday.
Around 3 p.m. that day, Hallam contacted the woman and asked to meet with her, according to the affidavit. She reportedly told him she could not because she would be working until 9:30 p.m., and she said he could leave the gift at her apartment. However, when she arrived at her apartment complex, she saw Hallam standing outside and felt he was waiting for her, according to the affidavit. She went to her apartment through a side entrance, but allegedly found Hallam waiting for her at her door.
Hallam allegedly convinced the woman to come with him to a common laundry room in the basement of the complex, where he told her one of his roommates had helped him set up a scavenger hunt for the woman's gift. The woman reportedly told police she could see no signs of other people present and became suspicious.
According to the affidavit, Hallam told the woman the gift was "junk art" and was located in a bin underneath a table in the room. The woman reportedly described the bin to police as five feet long by two feet wide and three feet tall, with a lockable lid and handles. Hallam reportedly told the woman some of her gift was Easter candy, which he had left in his car. He then allegedly left the room, during which time the woman did not approach the bin, believing it may be part of a practical joke, according to police.
When Hallam returned, he allegedly encouraged the woman to open the bin and pulled it out from under the table to alleviate her fear, according to the affidavit. The woman then reportedly opened the bin and found it to be empty.
At this point, Hallam allegedly produced a stun gun, a handheld rectangular device with two metal prongs on the end. He allegedly pressed the device against the woman's arm and she felt a surge pass through her body, according to the affidavit. Police say the surge incapacitated the woman and caused her to collapse to the floor, at which point Hallam pinned her to the ground.
The woman reportedly became frightened for her life and did not know what Hallam's true intentions were, according to the affidavit. She allegedly began screaming and fighting Hallam, who police say placed his hand over her mouth. He also allegedly produced a pair of handcuffs and put one of the rings on the woman's left hand. While he was applying the handcuffs, police say, Hallam's hand slipped and his finger went into the woman's mouth. She allegedly bit down on his finger until he let her go and apologized, claiming it was all an April Fool's joke.
The woman was able to get away and reported the incident to police April 8, according to police. Crosby said he did not know why the report was delayed, but a delay is common with this type of allegations. When she reported the incident, burn marks were still visible on her arm, as was bruising on her wrist, Crosby said.
"Several days later, we're still able to have signs," he said.
Police conducted a search on Hallam's room and car late Thursday night, but Crosby said he does not know what was found. Crosby said police were interested in finding the bin the girl described, which was not an item usually found in the laundry room. Although Crosby said Hallam never tried to force the woman into the bin or trick her into getting inside, he said it is still an important piece of evidence given the circumstances.
"His whole premise was wanting her to open that box," he said.
Hallam was arrested Thursday night and booked into the Utah County Jail, where he is being held on a $5,000 bond on third-degree felony charges of aggravated assault and attempted kidnapping. According to the affidavit, police found a bite mark on the middle finger of Hallam's left hand.
Crosby said police are interviewing Hallam's roommates, but are uncertain which roommate he may have been referring to with the scavenger hunt because Hallam would not speak with police.
"He's not cooperating with us," Crosby said.
Crosby said Hallam does not appear to have any criminal history, and police have found no evidence so far of any history of mental illness.
"That's something that we're going to follow up on," he said.
Carri Jenkins, spokeswoman for BYU, said she had little information about the incident Friday. However, she confirmed that Hallam is a sophomore at the university. She said the university's Honor Code Office will now begin its own review of the incident to determine what actions should be taken. If it is determined that a person is a danger to the community, he or she may be banned from campus, but Jenkins said she does not know what decision will be made in this case.
"Every case is handled on an individual basis," she said.
Well, that’s one way to bypass Honor Code proceedings in making your involuntary exit from BYU . . .
Did you not see the last paragraph? "If it is determined that a person is a danger to the community, he or she may be banned from campus, but Jenkins said she does not know what decision will be made in this case."
Presumably he was confident that the Spirit had revealed to him that the bomb would go off as planned, thus obliterating the return address. The LDS "brethen" have repeatedly counseled about the unreliability of "hormonal revelations", but it never seems to sink in with the target audience.
Dates aren't that hard to find.
Well, I can see where creepy Taser-elder would have some trouble getting dates, even at date-crazed BYU. He'll probably have better luck in the slammer, where much of the population is more or less on the same wavelength he is.
“If it is determined that a person is a danger to the community, he or she may be banned from campus, but Jenkins said she does not know what decision will be made in this case.”
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so the mormon so called “home teacher” gets a pass because he is a pesthood holder ???
I guess she’ll ber the one to get punished...
How dare she complain...
If he has to carry a Taser with him, he must not be that appealing to women..
Makes you wonder what this guy was like in high school...
What you were saying is that “This is Provo!”
Makes you wonder what this guy was like in high school...
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Did he carry a Taser to the Prom ???
“Danced with me or I’ll Taze you”
Later
“No officer, I said I would tease her...”
I'm not LDS, but am very familiar with the LDS religion and culture. I'm surprised that at BYU, which is by design a sort of marriage market with thousands of eager-to-marry young adults organized into singles wards, that the issue of romantic attractions between home teachers and female teachees isn't pretty aggressively managed. Seems to me it should be absolutely routine for bishops to regularly remind all the members of their ward that anytime either a home teacher or a female teachee perceives any romantic attraction between the two, that he or she should immediately make a request for a change in assignment.
And dating between a home teacher and one of his teachees ought to be explicitly prohibited, with an instruction that if a home teacher wants to ask one of his teachees out on a date, he must first request and receive and change in the home teaching assignment. If such an instruction isn't in place, then it wouldn't be unusual for a home teacher to come to (not inside) a female teachee's apartment without a companion, for a social rather home teaching purpose, any more than it would be unusual for any random single man wanting a date to go alone to knock on the door of a young woman who lives in the same complex to ask her out. From the story here, it doesn't sound as if he actually did go inside her apartment -- just waited at her door until she arrived home, and then asked her to go to the laundry room. If such an instruction IS already in place, then this young lady certainly was remiss in not requesting a change of home teacher after the first time he asked her out on a date (as was he, for not requesting a change before asking, but he's obviously operating well beyond the "remiss" line).
Probably a socially awkward geek, who got the tip-top grades and 100% early morning seminary attendance needed to get into BYU, but never had any more luck with girls than a few occasions where a girl reluctantly agree to dance with him at a ward youth dance, just to be polite.
He really does sound like he’s developed a serious mental disorder. In a reality-based world, there was no possible positive outcome to this plan, and it clearly was plan, not just a sudden misguided impulse. At some big secular universities, a guy *might* get away with something like this, even if he managed to rape the girl, but no way can anybody pull something like this at BYU and expect to continue as a student at the school, or in good standing with the Church, or without having charges pressed. Whatever he was thinking, it clearly wasn’t rational.
Guns are not allowed in BYU student housing, even off campus. At least they weren’t when I lived there.
exactly.
This is a spokeswoman who is obviously not authorized to make any statements about what the final disposition of the case will be. Par for the course, at any large institution or company. BYU will get rid of him, because as an officially sectarian school, it can enforce religious requirements like requiring ecclesiastical endorsement (which obviously this psycho-elder isn't going to get, after assaulting his female home-teachee). But if you heard the same statement from a spokesperson at a secular university, it might well be because the school knows it may be forced to keep the psycho, under the ADA and related federal education laws. If this guy did the exact same thing at a secular university (even if he knew the young lady because they were both LDS and he'd been assigned as her home teacher), if his actions were found by a licensed psychiatrist to be have resulted from mental illness, and the psychiatrist says "I expect he'll be okay with these new meds I've prescribed for him", the school is screwed. They CAN'T throw him out. Refer to the Virginia Tech massacre if you've forgotten how this works.
While it may not be OFFICIAL policy/doctrine, grey is right, the conditioning, especially at BYU approved housing is you always let your priesthood leaders in and if you don’t it is assumed you are breaking the honor code.
However, I suspect that she will be blamed for this since she should have ‘known better’ than to be alone with a member of the opposite sex. That is a no-no at BYU.
I remember having to have the front door open if I was with my fiance in the living room and my roomates were not home.
It is not uncommon for a family to request different Home Teachers. A reason does not have to be given.
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It did when I requested new home teachers at BYU. I was also refused by my Bishop even though one of my HT was an ex-boyfriend.
It may not have been that way in YOUR experience but do not discount our experiences just because we are no longer LDS.
I have no ‘church’ to protect and no reason to lie.
why do I suspect that this guy will claim he had a ‘revelation’ that this woman was his ‘eternal mate’ but she wasn’t listening to the spirit enough to have the same revelation.
Except to bash Mormons.
not even then. They do a great job of that on their own.
Unlike the LDS, I don’t believe in ‘lying for the Lord’. Don’t need too, but I do understand that the LDS NEED to demonize those who leave, lest they have to admit there might be some valid reason to leave Mormonism.
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