This semester saw the beginnings and continuations of a number of big cases for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department.
Missing Narcotics
Carl Oestmann, director of patrol operations for UNL police, said officers are still investigating the disappearance of 10 10-milliliter vials of ketamine that were reported missing Sept. 28 from an animal research laboratory on East Campus.
The drug is used in veterinary clinics around the country as an animal anesthetic.
At UNL, it is used primarily on pigs.
The Federal Drug Administration put the drug on a list of controlled substances in 2000 as it has been sold as a street drug to produce a dissociative high, sort of like a combination between PCP and a date-rape drug.
The value of the missing vials is listed at $100 on UNL police’s Web site.
According to the Department of Justice’s Web site, each 10-milliliter vial contains ten hits that sell for $30 to $45 apiece illegally.
David Hardin, head of the veterinary and biomedical sciences department, said his department is cooperating with the investigation and re-evaluating how closely the drug is guarded.
“We’re going to look at our procedures,” Hardin said. “We thought we had it secured, but people can always find a way.”
The lab where the ketamine was taken from is adjacent to the Veterinary Basic Science Building and is surrounded by a fence that can be manually opened at certain spots.
The veterinary science department is now looking into making the perimeter safeguarded with an ID-scanning device, Hardin said.
Sigma Chi Shakedown
The arrest of eight members of the Sigma Chi fraternity for hazing was definitely last year’s news, but the fallout from the incident stretched well into this semester.
Just before fall classes started, UNL police arrested the ninth person in relation to the Sigma Chi’s hazing practices.
The first arrests came on April 21 after a UNL-police investigation into a report from a freshman pledge who said he was sexually assaulted by strippers acting at the whim of high-ranking members of the Sigma Chi fraternity during a party.
In early September, Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly announced that no sexual assault charges would be filed against any of the fraternity members.
The nine who were arrested were found guilty or pleaded no-contest to misdemeanor hazing charges or procuring alcohol to minors.
On Sept. 15, UNL announced the fraternity will have its charter revoked for four years, from May 1, 2009, to May 1, 2013.
However, Juan Franco, vice chancellor of student affairs, said the fraternity can petition to reopen its house for the fall semester of 2011 if certain requirements are met.
Those requirements include frequent and thorough house checks, completing several remodeling projects in the next two years, paying for a resident assistant to live there and filling the house mainly with freshmen, Franco said.
Dorm Drug Bust
On Nov. 12, UNL police arrested Matthew Grabow, a freshman general studies major, for possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver.
He was the first UNL student to be arrested by university police in at least four years for selling drugs.
Police were called to the fifth floor of Abel that night after a resident assistant reported smelling marijuana.
Oestmann said police were given permission to search the room from the student who lived there and found a bag; inside it were four bags of marijuana totaling 13 grams, a scale, plastic containers, clear plastic bags and $850.
Grabow, who lives on a different floor in Abel, admitted the bag was his and was taken to the Lancaster County Corrections Facility.
But two hours later he was released and the details of the case become a little hazy.
When Grabow spoke to the Daily Nebraskan a week after his arrest, he said he was contacted the day before by a deputy Lancaster County attorney who told Grabow they would not be pursuing charges.
Grabow is still not listed as a current case on the Lancaster County Attorney’s Web site.
“He didn’t tell me why,” Grabow said. “But I’m relieved.”
Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly spoke to the Daily Nebraskan last Friday and confirmed that Grabow is not a current case and his office is still “making a decision” about whether or not he will be prosecuted.
Kelly said it is rare, but not uncommon, for a case to take more than a month before the city prosecutors decide to charge or drop the accused person.
Both Lacy and Oestmann declined to comment further on what is causing the delay.
ryanboetel@dailynebraskan.com
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