EXCLUSIVE UPDATE - GW Student Arrested at HellWell: "The Hatchet twisted my words and conveniently omitted information"

On Thursday, The Hatchet featured a story about Jennifer Sales, a GW student who was arrested after entering HellWell without her GWorld, then calling MPD when UPD tried to detain her.

While several other GWBlogSpot bloggers wrote about aspects of this story, including a critique of the article's placement in The Hatchet, a critique of the article itself and two examinations of the story as a whole, I e-mailed Ms. Sales to get her side of the story, and find out exactly went on. Was she happy with how her side of the story was told? Did The Hatchet do a good job of exposing the facts?

According to the following response e-mail from Ms. Sales, the answers are "No" and "No":

Hey Andrew-

In fear of retribution, I cannot say much. The Hatchet twisted my words and conveniently omitted information. "Student-run paper" i don't think so. I called MPD for a valid reason- i'm not a rebel without a cause.

I asked Ms. Sales to elaborate on her criticisms of The Hatchet, and why exactly she called MPD. I got the following e-mail in response:

retribution from SJS- I just got a judicial letter saying I may be expelled.

Although she doesn't mention specifically what the omitted information was, it's pretty clear that Ms. Sales is unhappy with The Hatchet's coverage. Given Hatchet editor in chief Jake Sherman essentially saying that he thinks The Hatchet did all they could to provide the facts, despite the fact that Sarah and I got additional information, and given the strong student interest that this story seems to be generating:

POLL QUESTION:

~ flexiPoll: free online web poll ~

Student Goes to Jail for Forgetting GWorld

The Hatchet is reporting a female junior was arrested last Friday for "unlawful entry" at HellWell. It appears she forgot her GWorld and wouldn't take no for an answer. After being turned away at the front desk and still not being able to find her GWorld, she succeeded in sneaking past staff monitoring the Juice Zone entrance and hopped on an machine.

"I had my iPod on loud, and a UPD officer tried to get my attention," she said. "I told him that I would be off in 10 minutes and that I was a GW student."

The officer then removed her from the machine and arrested her for unlawful entry, UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said. When the officer threatened to arrest her, Sales said she called 911. The Metropolitan Police Department arrived several minutes later.

"The MPD officer said 'I have some bad news. I'm sorry, I have to arrest you. UPD is pressing charges for unlawful entry,'" Sales said.

Now, this may not have been the brightest move on the girls part, but don't you think UPD may have over reacted? After verifying she was indeed a student, was it really necessary to press charges? I'm no lawyer, but how do you charge someone for "unlawful entry" to a facility they are, in general, allowed to be in... she is after all a paying student.

Further, I found the Rules & Conduct page on GWellness' site and the word GWorld does not appear on the page. Then I searched the entire GWellness website the word GWorld and none of the results had anything to do with building access. So, the question remains, how do you break into a facility you're allowed access to?

Finally:

After being processed at the Second District station, Sales said she was released several hours later - but officers had already locked up her money and told her she could not access it until the next day. Sales said she called UPD to pick her up, but they said they could not help her.

She said, "I walked a couple miles and then told a cab driver my story to convince him to give me a ride home."

I'm also concerned that she found herself wandering home late Friday from the police station with none of her possessions and having to convince a cab driver to take her home. Isn't UPD's job to protect students?

Please vote the comments section. Did UPD over react?