Cuomo: “Rape” School to Pay $20G

A suburban college, which is being sued over an alleged gang rape and suicide, underreported campus crime for several years, the state attorney general said yesterday.
    
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the Dominican College student handbook had incorrect crime figures for several years, and added, "When a college underreports crime statistics they put their students at risk.''
    
He announced that the college has agreed to pay $20,000 and set up procedures to ensure accuracy in the future.
    
The agreement between Cuomo and the college takes no position on whether Megan Wright, 19, was gang-raped at Dominican in May 2006, as she claimed. Wright, of Ramsey, N.J., killed herself later that year after prosecutors said they could not establish that a crime had been committed. They cited issues of consent and forensic evidence.
    
Wright's family has filed a federal civil suit seeking millions of dollars from the school, its officials and four men they accuse of rape.
    
Gloria Allred, the family's attorney, said Friday, "We are very excited and happy'' about Cuomo's finding.
    
She said the college's failure to accurately report campus crime "lulled parents and students like Megan Wright into thinking that it was safe for young women to attend that college.''
    
The agreement says Dominican "published information about crime statistics in its original 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 Student Handbooks that was false.''
    
The college attorney, Phil Semprevivo, said the incorrect figures were typographical errors. He also said the errors were corrected before Cuomo investigated, which Cuomo's office disputed.
    
The college sits in Blauvelt, 22 miles from New York City. Under the agreement, it will train security employees in crime reporting and designate officials to collect and maintain accurate records.
    
Cuomo is also notifying every college and university in New York that underreporting crime statistics violates state law.