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An intial police report was shredded yet it is all still being characterized as a “communications breakdown” The politics and spin of a cover-up.

Report rips EMU over dorm death Probe: Officials broke law in slaying case

Eastern Michigan University officials violated federal law and compromised campus safety by failing to warn the public about the circumstances surrounding a student’s death in December, according to a report released Friday that sharply criticizes several top administrators.

The report says EMU officials knew police immediately suspected that Laura Dickinson had been murdered, but they failed to report that possibility to the public for more than two months while the suspect remained on campus.

The independent investigation by the Detroit law firm of Butzel Long faulted EMU for a variety of systemic administrative failures, including lax reporting of crime statistics, inadequate disclosure of campus security policies and failure to update its daily crime log. Some university administrators gave investigators conflicting accounts, complicating the probe, the report said.

The university initially reported “no foul play’’ was suspected even though Dickinson was found partially clothed with a pillow over her head on the floor of her dorm room Dec. 15. Only after a suspect was arrested on Feb. 23 did the university inform the public that Dickinson had been slain. The suspect, Orange Taylor III, was another EMU student who was on campus during the investigation.

The EMU Board of Regents commissioned the independent report after students and staff criticized the university for failing to alert the public of the suspected murder.

In presenting the report at a press conference Friday, Tom Sidlik, chairman of the board of regents, was blunt in his assessment of EMU policies and officials involved in the case.

“The findings are clear,’’ Sidlik said. “The university got it wrong. What happened is unacceptable.’’

Regents promised they would take unspecified disciplinary action against those responsible sometime in the next two weeks, but would give no further details.

The report is especially critical of Jim Vick, vice president for student affairs, and Cindy Hall, public safety director. It says both knew within hours of the discovery of Dickinson’s body that it may be a homicide. But both chose to continue to call the case a “death investigation’’ rather than a “homicide investigation’’ throughout the course of the two-month investigation, the report states.

The report also says that Vick at one point directed the shredding of an initial police report that typically makes its way to campus attorneys for review. The report says attorneys likely would have been alerted to the seriousness of the criminal probe and would have advised that the campus community be warned according to the federal Clery Act, which requires institutions to give timely warnings of incidents that represent a threat to campus.

EMU President John Fallon relied on Vick for information on the death investigation, according to the report, and apparently was not told everything Vick knew about Dickinson’s death. Fallon told investigators that Vick repeatedly told him to be patient and that there was nothing new in the investigation. Fallon has maintained in previous public statements that he did not become aware that a murder investigation was under way until a suspect was charged on Feb. 23. Fallon never sought additional information from anyone other than Vick, the report said.

Regents said Friday that EMU administrators were told not to attend the press conference and not to comment on the investigation.

Contacted Friday afternoon, Vick, who was placed on paid administrative leave March 5, said that he had been busy all day and had not read the report. He said he would review it with his attorney over the weekend and make a statement early next week if appropriate.

Hall did not return a message left on her cell phone on Friday.

Fallon was not in his office Friday afternoon and did not return calls to his cell phone seeking comment.

The investigation concluded that students and staff were placed at risk as a result of EMU’s failure to change its public statement on Dec. 16 that no foul play was suspected in Dickinson’s death, despite what the report characterizes as immediate evidence that a homicide could have occurred.

The report notes the statement wasn’t removed from EMU’s Web site until student Taylor was arrested and charged with rape and murder on Feb. 23.

“Instead of providing a warning, or even no statement at all, the university’s statement dismissed the possibility of foul play and offered assurances of safety,’’ the report said.

“University officials admit they knew the statement was inaccurate. Despite those admissions, no one demonstrated sufficient initiative or took sufficient action to see that it was corrected.’’

What resulted was “regrettable and widespread anxiety and a breach of trust,’’ the report said.

Murder clues

The investigation found that circumstances surrounding Dickinson’s death showed immediately that homicide was a strong possibility. Within a few days, a drop of fluid found on the body was determined to be semen. In addition, multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene, and the county medical examiner believed by the end of Dec.15 that the conditions of Dickinson’s death were suspicious.

The findings say Hall also believed by the end of that day that Dickinson might have been murdered. Hall was in Dickinson’s room that day and observed the condition of her body, the report said. The report said Hall and Vick discussed the investigation numerous times over the two months before the arrest.

Regent Jim Stapleton, who chaired a board subcommittee that acted as the liaison with the law firm, said the report revealed a significant amount of miscommunication at EMU “and, quite frankly, dysfunction.’’

Through interviews and other evidence, the firm concluded that confusion existed over how to warn the campus on Dec. 15. There was no written policy or procedure and EMU officials lacked experience with such a death on campus.

Investigators said a noteworthy example of such confusion came when the university’s initial statement was crafted after a conversation between Fallon and Rhonda DeLong, then interim director of university communications. DeLong was out of town on Dec. 15 and unaware Dickinson’s body had been discovered.

The statement released the next day said, in part, that there was no reason to suspect foul play and that officials were fully confident in the safety and security of the campus environment.

“It is clear that law enforcement’s recognition that homicide was a reasonable possibility was not effectively communicated to the people who prepared and issued the December 16th statement’’ the report said. “It is also clear that those persons preparing and issuing the December 16th statement did not adequately confirm the accuracy ... with DPS or any other department prior to its issuance.’’ (See related story.)

The next week, additional events arose that pointed to murder as a possibility, according to the report.

An initial incident draft report involving the Dickinson case was circulated to the Student Affairs office. The report contained graphic details about her body and the conditions under which she was found. After several department administrators read the report, they brought it to the attention of Vick, who indicated he was aware of the details in it.

Vick said that, after consulting with Hall, he directed the document be shredded, according to the report. Hall denied that she told Vick to shred the document, adding she was not aware of the document.

Had it not been shredded, the report would be been circulated to University General Counsel Ken McKanders, who told investigators “it would have raised a flag,’’ the report said.

Vick did not inform Fallon the document had been destroyed, the report said.

Investigators say neither the original report or a copy could be found. “... Regardless of why the (document) was destroyed, it is undisputed that Mr. Vick and Chief Hall clearly understood this was an investigation of a potential homicide, no corrective action was taken despite increasing indicators that the ‘no foul play’ statement was inaccurate, and no action was taken to warn the campus community of a possible homicide,’’ the report states.

Questions asked

A variety of EMU officials at various points questioned whether the “no foul play’’ assertion should be retained. Among them was Lt. Jeff Nesmith, who said he asked Hall, “Why are we saying that?’’ Nesmith said he did not recall Hall’s response, and did not discuss the issue with anyone else.

Upon Taylor’s arrest, key players such as Vick and Hall went into “damage control mode,’’ according to the report. Among other things, officials asserted that university officials had to balance the need to disclose information against preserving the integrity of the investigation, and the label “death investigation’’ justified the lack of a warning.

“None of these justifications precluded the issuance of a warning or excuse the failure to warn the campus community about the undisputed reasonable possibility of a homicide under circumstances that included that fact that the victim’s keys were missing,’’ the report said.

Sidlik and Stapleton said the regents would decide on any personnel or policy changes resulting from the report’s conclusions in the coming weeks. They would not comment on what those moves might be, but said changes would likely come before the regents next formal meeting on June 19.

The report involved 80 interviews and more than 1,200 pages of documents. Other than Stapleton, none of the regents saw the report until Friday morning, Stapleton said.

Rich Hewlett, an attorney with Butzel Long who helped conduct the investigation, did not have an overall estimate of the cost of the probe. But he said that he had submitted invoices of between $220,000 and $225,000 to EMU for about half of the work.

Attending the press conference were four members of the law firm, including Hewlett, David DuMouchel, Michael Lavoie and Timothy Labadie.

Other regents present were Fran Parker and Gary Hawks - members of Stapleton’s committee - and Floyd Clack. EMU administrators, including Fallon, were ordered not to attend, to underscore the independent nature of the investigation, Stapleton said.

Reaction to report

Campus observers said the report was strikingly frank in its criticism of EMU’s handling of the incident.

“It’s an attempt (by the board) to be open and honest,’’ said Bert Greene, an emeritus professor who attended the press conference. “That’s refreshing.’’

“I was fearing a whitewash, and this is not that,’’ said S. Daniel Carter, vice president of a national campus crime information watchdog organization, Security on Campus.

Carter said the EMU incident is the most serious violation of the Clery Act since it was enacted in 1990. “None were a murder with a suspect at large,’’ he said.

Carter said he hoped EMU would heed the report’s recommendations. “They need to make sure this is fixed, that something like this will never happen again,’’ he said. “And if anyone deliberately withheld information ... if a person did that, they don’t deserve to work in higher education ever again. They don’t deserve to be responsible for student safety ever again.’’

The U.S. Department of Education is also conducting an investigation of whether EMU violated the Clery Act, and is expected to issue its report in the next few weeks, according to federal officials.

D.O.E. investigators have declined to comment on the probe, but Butzel Long attorneys say the government will likely cite EMU for violations and impose fines in connection with some of them.

Carter said the case demonstrates as clearly as anything that internal communications and the right hand knowing what the left is doing is critical.

The Virginia Tech shooting tragedy in April and the EMU incident “bring that home,’’ he said. “If we can’t get there after this, then what we have been doing for 20 years is pointless.’’

Steven Hiller, deputy chief assistant prosecutor for the county, said he had not had time to read the entire report, but that it was unlikely any findings would affect the criminal trial and proceedings with Taylor.

Taylor faces charges of open murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first-degree home invasion and larceny. He has a pretrial hearing next Wednesday.

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