http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2619263,00.html

Sex offenses often take place on campuses even if you don't add athletics to the hormones and alcohol cocktail, but when you do add athletics things tend to get ugly. Money is involved. Alot of money.

One woman was brought a drink by a team member, she later awoke in the bushes with her clothes in disarray and, not being the type to have sex in the shrubbery, concluded that she had been given a date-rape drug and then raped. Well, the lack of anyone having seen her in a stuporous condition gave the athlete an 'out' as no one could prove he had administered the drug or had sex with her while she was unable to consent. The university's athletic department stood clearly behind their athlete and his very technical escape.

From the article Mame posted:

At its lowest ebb, then-Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter even hired a private mediation specialist to help mend the rift that developed during the Ramsey investigation.

"I think this is as bad as it was back then," Wise said Friday.

"Because, here, Keenan is publicly saying the police put a football liaison in place (at CU), whose job apparently was to tip them off any time anything was happening, and there is Chief (Mark) Beckner standing back and saying, 'Show me some evidence, and we'll investigate it.'

"People know there were meetings going on between players and coaches and that cop, prior to the CU investigators talking to the football players. I'd say this is pretty tenuous."

Wise was referring to Boulder police officer Don Spicely, identified in a deposition by Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan as a department liaison assigned to the Buffs football team.
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IMO, Wise tends to exagerate things, and talks too much, and projects his opinion on things he'd be better off not commenting on to a reporter. Sex parties in College towns is not unique to Boulder----jock guys involved in charges is not unique. Young girls getting drunk and having sex, perhaps even taking advantage of as a result, is not unusual. We don't know exactly what Don Sicely's role was. I think Mary Keenan was just being honest in her deposition, and she's not the one to make it public. She seems like no nonsense when it comes to the boys gathering around to protect each other and sex crimes. There is an attitude that boys will be boys....and any girl that goes to a party and drinks and then cries foul the next day, was a willing participant. Jock mentality and sex crimes seem to be in vogue right now. Add Boulder and the police and DA's office, and you have another book.

Not to fear---Governor Owens is involved now, and is determined to find out what happened, and is calling people on the carpet.

I believe the expletive muttered by Beckner was "bullshit." If I were him, I'd ask for a raise.

There is a long list of cases in Boulder that sit on a shelf or ruined due to the poor performance of the police department.

My question is where is Pasta Jay in all of this? Does he still have deep connections to the CU football team? I still have a source who worked for Pasta Jay and firmly believes he was somehow involved in the Ramsey murder. Where is he now?

"People know there were meetings going on between players and coaches and that cop, prior to the CU investigators talking to the football players. I'd say this is pretty tenuous."
"Mary Keenan is a person who is careful not to say things unless she has got good facts and knowledge to back it up," said Wise.

"She just really came through as a very talented person and over the years, and I remember several very, very difficult sexual assault cases, and she persuasively argued to us that they should be filed. And they were filed, and she got convictions out of them," said Wise.

"So, I think when (CU football coach Gary) Barnett makes his comment that if she saw anything there, she would have filed something, I think that's accurate."

Wise said problems between the Boulder district attorney's office and the county's largest police force predate the troubled Ramsey investigation, going back to the earliest days of his tenure. The two offices also clashed over the handling of the 1983 murder of CU student Sid Wells, who had been dating the daughter of actor Robert Redford.

His sense of the CU situation, he said, is that "there is something going on, and I don't know what it is. There has to be something more going on, beyond this football thing, for Keenan to be that candid in this deposition, which she knew would become public.

~~~~~~~~~~~

What are the common denominators? History often repeats itself. Mary Keenan is portrayed as honest and careful. The police department seems to be carrying a very long history of ineptitude and mismanagement.

I think Boulder has a police force that OBVIOUSLY needs some house cleaning. Then, perhaps, the relationship between the police department and the DA's office just MIGHT have a chance.

JMO

Someone just wrote to remind me of some Ramsey connections. The writer noted the Ramsey connection between the strength coach Doc Kreis (who was then living in the Ramsey house) and interference (or cover-up) by BPD/CU liason Spicely, who met with CU players at the home of the unsolved murder. Keenan said she believed a "crime had been committed" by Spicely.

Pelle? Where have I heard that name before?

Edited to add: Kreis was once a guard in a Georgia state prison.

Frankly, I'm just hoping Lin Wood will find a way to have a go at GOVERNOR OWENS. Perhaps the Ramseys don't want Lin to go at the Governor or there is some other reason not to...? What Governor Owens did to the Ramseys was totally wrong, and imo, the Governor should be held accountable.

Interesting about another link to the Ramsey house.

Boulder IS different because people in this town think they and the town are "perfect." And that is a big part of the complex problem of why they set loose-screws like STs to persecute good, innocent people in a BIG TIME WAY - and then the low-downs try to make some bucks off the baby's murder. Law enforcement in Boulder has been nothing but a farce in Boulder for a long time, imho. Boulder leadership has had its priorities all screwed up for a long time.

The latest, bestest, most advanced environmentalest, progressivest, most artistic, most advanced this and that, set aside parkland-est, etc. OK, fine. All the while Keenan has to stand tough against the undergraduate party-hardy drunken recruit-'em croud at the athletic dept. of the college.

Don't believe the hype about this town, and don't let your kids go there!!!

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E115%257E1926555,00.html

Study ranks University of Colorado No. 1 for partying created: August 18, 2003 - 1:24 PM
updated: August 21, 2003 - 5:02 PM
posted by Web Producer Jeannie Piper
RELATED
A look at Princeton Review 2004 rankings of colleges

Princeton Review


BOULDER (AP) - The University of Colorado, where a six-year effort to curb binge drinking ended this spring without making a dent, is the nation's No. 1 party school.

According to the latest Princeton Review survey, the typical CU student smokes a lot of marijuana and drinks a lot of beer and hard liquor. They also don't study very often, the survey said.

Alexandra Kass, a 21-year-old CU student, said finding a party is as easy as driving around with the car windows open and listening for music blaring from a house.

Still, she said her study habits haven't suffered at a university that also rated three out of four stars for academics in the survey.

"If someone can't balance their social life and studying, then too bad for them," Kass said.

The latest Princeton Review's "Best 351 Colleges" is based on 70-question surveys completed by about 106,000 students at various campuses. The review, which is not related to Princeton University, has been conducting the surveys since 1992.

Brigham Young University was the top "stone-cold sober" school in the 2004 survey and Army's military academy at West Point, N.Y., was the hardest to get into.

The "party school" category is based on survey questions focusing on the amount of alcohol and drug consumption, the amount of time students spend -- or don't spend -- studying, and the popularity of fraternities and sororities. Last year, CU was No. 8 on the party list.

University officials questioned the latest report, saying it was based on objective factors and rankings. They noted the faculty includes Nobel Prize winners, and that numerous students have won awards.

"If they want to study hard and play hard, they will get a great degree, but if they come here just to play hard, they won't be here long," said Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs. "(The university) provides a wonderful opportunity for education and a wonderful opportunity for off-campus social and recreational opportunities."

About 63 percent of students at the 28,000-student Boulder school binge drink, a rate well above the national average and up from recent years, according to Bob Maust, coordinator of the A Matter of Degree Program, which tried to reduce binge drinking at CU. A Harvard study showed about 44 percent of college students nationwide binge drink.

CU and the city in recent years have tried to limit some of the problems associated with partying.

In 2001, officials barred couches on front porches in the University Hill district after riots in which students set couches ablaze in the streets. Beer has been banned at CU football games since 1996.

Parties weren't hard to find Saturday night as students spilled out of houses and onto the sidewalks of University Hill. There was a steady stream of people visiting nearby taverns.

Groups such as the American Medical Association have long criticized party school rankings. The AMA said the ranking legitimizes high-risk drinking and portrays alcohol as an essential part of student life.

Princeton Review is merely reporting on conditions at the schools, editorial director Robert Franek said.

In other party-school criteria, CU ranked third in widespread use of marijuana, fourth in the prevalence of hard liquor consumption and 11th in the prevalence of beer usage. The university ranked first among schools where students study the least.

The rest of the top 10 party schools were the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Indiana University, Bloomington; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.; University of Texas-Austin; The University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.; DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.; and Saint Bonaventure University, Olean, N.Y.

Universities are enormous cash cows and university athletics are the stellar cash cows. This is often true at any of the various schools that come in as number one party school and also true at the schools that would come in last on any such listing.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-colorado5feb05,1,1020963.story?coll=la-home-sports

"Hoffman, who was in Colorado Springs today to give a speech, said that Barnett's comments Tuesday to reporters about Hnida outraged her because Barnett essentially blamed the victim.

Hnida - a kicker and one of the first females ever to play for a major college football team - had told Sports Illustrated that she was harassed by her CU teammates and raped by one of them. She later left the school.

On Tuesday, when reporters asked about Hnida, Barnett said in part: "It was obvious that Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do - they respect your ability. Katie was a girl, and not only was she a girl, she was terrible. OK? There's no other way to say it. She couldn't kick the ball through the uprights."

Today, Hoffman said: "I was deeply disturbed by the comments coach Barnett made (Tuesday), focusing more on her kicking ability than on the message at hand, which is that we really need to address the sexual assault.'"

NOT TO FEAR, THOUGH---another article said Hoffman wanted the BPD to look into the allegations.