September 06, 2015
A first-year student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been charged with raping a woman at an off-campus fraternity house in late August, according to court documents and school officials.
The student, identified as 18-year-old William Rice Scott, of Ellwood City, is accused of raping the unnamed victim at a party on August 29 at the Sigma Chi fraternity house on South Seventh Street in Indiana, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
A spokesperson for the university, Michelle Fryling, said that Scott was not a member of the Sigma Chi chapter at IUP, which has been suspended by the national fraternity. Fryling said she was not aware of any other issues with the chapter at IUP.
The school would not say whether the victim was a student at the university, citing privacy concerns, and also declined to reveal the academic status of the defendant in light of the charges, which include involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated assault (forcible compulsion) and indecent assault forcible compulsion, in addition to rape.
The defendant was released from the Indiana County Jail after posting $50,000 bail.
The charges come after another IUP student, Philadelphia native Jose Aponte, Jr., 22, was charged in May with sexually assaulting two students off campus.
