The Oberlin Municipal court cleared Roderic Knight, professor of ethnomusicology, of any connection to an Oct. 16, 1998 incident involving two Oberlin students. All charges pertaining to the incident were dismissed on May 26. Knight maintained his innocence since his arrest, and expressed gratification over the dismissal.
In an unrelated incident, Knight pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct for an August 31 incident in the arboretum.
Just under a year later, the trial of Delucas Lucas has yet to move forward. Lucas is accused of the September 1998 assault of a student in Fairchild Hall.
After several students identified Lucas as the person leaving the building following the assault, Lucas was taken into custody. The victim also identified Lucas as the assailant. Once in custody, Lucas confessed to a 1997 assault in which a student was attacked behind Keep Cottage.
Since last fall's incident, several pre-trials have been set. However, because of his first lawyer's absence in court, the trial was postponed. Kirk Perry continued as Lucas's lawyer until August 6, when William Willis took over. Shortly thereafter James Burge took over. Since August 19, Burge has been in charge of the case.
Burge was unavailable for comment. The next pre-trial date is September 17.
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 128, Number 18, April 2, 1999
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