Three white Quinnipiac University students have been arrested and dismissed from the school after an investigation into the racial harassment of black players on the school's men's and women's basketball teams.
Police say 18-year-old Charles Merritt of Clifton, Maine, made threatening and harassing phone calls to three black players on the men's team on Monday. The freshman, who was a roommate of two of the players and knew the third, was charged with intimidation based on bigotry and bias, authorities said.
Emily Loschiavo, of West Newbury, Vt., and Courtney Stellwag of Newburgh, N.Y., both 19, are accused in a separate incident of making harassing calls to a resident assistant's room at a Quinnipiac dorm on Tuesday. They are charged with harassment.
The New Haven Register reported Thursday that the calls to the RA's room were answered by two black players on the women's basketball team who are friends with the resident assistant. Police said both women players were threatened with bodily harm.
E-mail messages seeking comment were left with all three students who were arrested.
Hamden Police Capt. Ronald Smith said the phone calls came several days after slurs were discovered on poster and cork boards outside the dorm rooms of the three players on the men's team.
Smith said the written slurs included a racial epithet and a drawing of a Nazi swastika, and the phone calls contained similar racial overtones.
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The school has not identified the players involved and a spokesman for the athletic department declined to comment, citing the police investigation.
