Man
Jailed for Trespassing After Students Call Police
By
John Byrne
After
a 911 call to police early Sunday morning, a non-student male who
had been sleeping in Harkness was arrested and charged with criminal
trespassing.
Jon Christian, 32, with no legal residence, was not allowed to post
bond because he was found to have been living on the streets and
in dormitories. He has been arrested numerous times for various
assault charges in four states and has used numerous aliases, police
said.
Christian pled no contest to criminal trespass and was given a 30-day
jail sentence, part of which has been suspended. He will be incarcerated
until early next week.
As a condition of his release, he will not be able to set foot on
campus. If he does, he will be forced to serve the remainder of
his sentence, Director of Safety and Security Robert Jones said.
“If by chance this person does get out of jail and he does
come on campus,” he added, “we would want to inform
the courts, and he would be in violation of the court order.”
According to Security, Christian had been staying in various places
on campus. A student called Security on Saturday afternoon and stated
that he felt unsafe with Christian in the dorm. The situation came
to a head Monday, when another student called city police, fearing
for residents’ safety.
“Many of the students were fearful that Mr. Christian would
come back and hurt someone,” said Oberlin police. “Several
of them wanted to leave the building until we found him.”
Police called Jones and he requested that Christian be taken into
custody for criminal trespass and until further charges could be
investigated.
OSCA’s Housing Coordinator, junior Lindsay Baker, said that
Harkness has been dealing with the safety issues posed by the incident.
“This could have happened in any dorm, and it’s a little
bit frightening to us that it is happening in a co-op where we have
an attitude where we want to be welcoming,” she said.
“This guy totally had access to get into any building he wanted
to…and he posed a threat, whether or not that threat was manifested,”
she added. “There were definitely people in the house that
were threatened by him.”
Harkness held a house meeting Monday evening in which they discussed
the issue of safety and issues of class. Some students felt that
they were being classist by refusing to let him stay in the dorm.
“It is a community where people need to feel safe to some
extent,” she said. “And sometimes you have to make compromises
to make sure everybody feels safe.”
“The house came together very quickly as a community and decided
that people feel uncomfortable,” she added. “They stopped
propping their door so much.”
Security says they’re taking every measure possible to ensure
students’ safety.
“We’re taking every precaution there is,” Jones
said. “We have announced it to the RAs and the Area Coordinators
at our division meeting.”
Security has also sent Christian’s photograph to relevant
Residential Life personnel, Jones said. |