Elizabeth City, N.C. - A former Elizabeth City State University residence security officers has learned his punishment for a sexual assault on a student.
Anthony Butler is out of jail despite being sentenced to 34 days in prison. A Pasquotank judge found him guilty of all charges related to student Katherine Lowe’s report that he used his position as a residence security officer at ECSU to sexually assault her on a few different occasions between February and March.
Court papers show Butler appealed the judge’s ruling on Monday which is why he was issued bond and released while waiting for his case to be heard by the Supreme Court.
Butler’s arrest sparked controversy on campus after Lowe said the campus police chief and other school officials did nothing to help her when she reported what happened.
Since then, city police have uncovered more than 120 campus crimes reported since 2007 that were never investigated by the school.
The State Bureau of Investigation is also looking into how Lowe’s complaint was handled and an outside consulting firm is now reviewing the school’s system of reporting campus crimes.
NewsChannel attended an ECSU Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday. The chairman, Abdul Rasheed, spoke off-camera before the meeting and admitted that there must have been some kind of breakdown in the chain of command for reporting campus crimes as required by federal law.
But when cameras started rolling, he changed his response.
“In terms of the process for looking at what has transpired, all that is currently being investigated. So we’re waiting to see if and where if there were breakdowns in our system,” he said.
Since Butler’s arrest, police chief Sam Beamon and Chancellor Willie Gleason have resigned.
Related:
Police make arrests in 8 backlogged cases from ECSU
ECSU administrator says parents shouldn’t be worried
Elizabeth City State University names interim chancellor
Governor questioned about ECSU crime investigations
ECSU student says she was sexually assaulted on campus
Officials: 125 crime reports at ECSU may not have been investigated properly
