Alumnus' Sexual Assault Trial Called Off

The sexual assault trial of Chudi Ikpeazu ‘16 was called off this summer after all charges were nolle prossed with conditions.

“I hope that this decision is the best for both the victim and perpetrator.”

Allegations of Ikpeazu groping a fellow member of the senior class against her will in the Phillips Church basement in October 2015 emerged near the end of spring term that school year. The alleged victim reported her case to the Exeter Police Department (EPD) and Rockingham County Attorney’s Office after months of recurring “panic attacks” and an “act of penance” arranged by Rev. Robert Thompson that included Ikpeazu delivering monkey bread to her on a weekly basis.Ikpeazu turned himself into the Exeter Police Department on June 3, 2016, just two days before his class’s graduation ceremony. As the sexual assault case was promulgated over the summer by major publications including The Boston Globe, New York Daily News, Teen Vogue and The Daily Mail, current and former Exonians discussed and criticized the Academy’s handling of the assault in a stream of online posts and comments.Now, one year later, the headlined assault trial has been dropped.Jury selection for the trial was scheduled for Monday, June 26, but that morning, Deputy Rockingham County Attorney Patricia LaFrance said the trial had been called off, as all of Ikpeazu’s Class A misdemeanor charges had been revoked by the prosecutor under classified conditions withheld from the public court file.According to an article from New Hampshire Union Leader, LaFrance said that one reason why the concession was reached hours before the scheduled start of the trial was that the victim was elsewhere and had not had the opportunity to meet with the prosecutors in person to discuss the case. She added that perhaps the victim felt daunted by the prospect of testifying publicly about intimate details of the sexual assault.Private equity counselor Michael Whitfield Jones ‘75, whose opinion of 2015 assault case involving former Exeter faculty Rick Schubart was published in the New Hampshire Union Leader, has been following the Academy’s management of sexual assault allegations. He believes that if this trial had been continued, the victim may have faced trauma in recounting the incident and confronting her alleged abuser.“For the victim, it [dropping the trial] removes [the possibility of] the defense having a scorched-earth policy with regard to cross-examination,” Jones said. “If you’ve already experienced an alleged assault, the last thing you want to do is re-ignite that and create a situation in which you can bring out demons that might cause further damage.”Richard Samdperil, Ikpeazu’s defense lawyer, expressed his satisfaction with the agreement. "My client has always maintained that he is innocent of these charges and he is extremely grateful that the matter is behind him," Samdperil said. He hopes Ikpeazu can “resume his life without the bias, prejudice and negative inferences that the media portrayal of the case has created for him."Retired offshore engineer Tom Cronin ‘78 and his wife opened their household to the victim last summer when the assault allegations first emerged. The victim had planned to spend the summer on the PEA campus, but those plans collapsed. Cronin believed that the agreement was “the best possible outcome for the parties involved,” as it both validated the gravity of the case and achieved proper closure for the victim and the alleged assaulter.However, as the legal action against Ikpeazu comes to a close, the impact of the case on the Exeter community still remains. The Ikpeazu case followed a wave of media attention and criticism of the Academy’s history of sexual misconduct, largely spearheaded by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team in the March of 2016. This and other revelations of sexual misconduct were met with outcry from the Exeter community, with many citing the Ikpeazu case as proof that the Academy had yet to move past its questionable handling of such cases.Ikpeazu’s arrest prompted several students to found Exonians Against Sexual Assualt (EASA), a students organization aimed at addressing the issue of sexual misconduct on Exeter’s campus from within the student body.However, due to the recent and sensitive nature of the case, EASA has had difficulty addressing the allegations.“It's obviously difficult to comment on a case regarding people who were on campus during my time at Exeter and who still have ties to campus,” said senior and EASA co-head Mila DeGuere. “It can become a bit too personal, especially if there are friends of either party in the room.” DeGuere expressed relief that the two parties had at least reached a legal agreement without having the case go to trial.“I hope that this decision is the best for both the victim and perpetrator,” she said. “I'm glad things are settled and hope the best for the future. ”Jones agreed. “I was actually kind of relieved that it concluded with an agreement, so that they can both proceed,” he said. “I can only say that, from an alum’s perspective, I think anything that can protect students from choices they made that they regret in hindsight is good going forward.”Jones is one of the several alumni who have been outspoken about their criticism towards the Academy’s handling of sexual misconduct cases like this one. Over one thousand Exeter alumni joined “Do Better Exeter,” a coalition of alumni who pledged to withhold financial donations to the Academy until the administration demonstrated initiative to rectify their mishandling of these cases, and administrators responsible for suppressing these allegations were dismissed. “Exeter shouldn’t be a place where you fear the very people who are supposed to protect you,”  Jones, who joined the coalition, said. “And they’ve taken many positive steps, but we still have a lot of messes to clean up.”Although legal action against Ikpeazu has been dropped, New Hampshire state police, led by LaFrance, recently joined an EPD investigation into the Academy’s mishandling of this case and many others like it. Jones believes the involvement of New Hampshire law enforcement will force the Academy to be more transparent about sexual misconduct on campus. “I’m curious to know how the investigation by the state police into the administration and their possibly criminal liability will be resolved,” Jones said. “As an institution, Exeter doesn’t want to [be] handling this responsibility alone—the administration needs to have some checks and balances.”Cronin thought that the administration’s handling of future sexual assault cases may improve with the consultation and insight of a sexual assault survivor. “The administration can accomplish little on its own,” he said. “Oversight accountability and guidance need to come from having a survivor on the board.”No matter what steps Exeter takes toward fostering a safer community, Cronin expressed his hope for transparency and communication. “There must be open, regular, and frank conversations among all invested, and actions taken, not talked about,” he said.