An ASUO Executive candidate’s room was ransacked sometime Thursday afternoon in a crime that may have been politically motivated.
Maddy Melton, a contender for ASUO president in the April primary election, returned to her apartment near 29th Avenue and Willamette Street about 7 p.m. to find her room vandalized.
“Every drawer was dumped out and turned over,” she said, adding that pillows were ripped open and her clothing was scattered. “Just anything and everything was messed up.”
Melton, who is an out lesbian and is currently an ASUO multicultural advocate, was co-director of the LGBTQA nearly nine months ago when one morning she unlocked the office to find a hole had been punched in the wall and a poster was burned.
Melton said she believes Thursday’s crime may have happened because of her sexual orientation or because of her increased political activity.
“It could be both,” she said. “It’s a definite possibility.”
ASUO Elections Coordinator Andrea Hall said no campaign-related crimes have been reported so far this year. “I’ve heard nothing about it and heard no complaints,” she said.
Hall added that she generally expects some level of campaign-related mischief. She said last year, a candidate’s car was egged, “but it was nothing to the extent of breaking and entering.”
Melton said some property was stolen from her room, including her cowboy hat, 13-inch television, alarm clock and toothbrush, but she said she is puzzled because whoever broke in didn’t steal her computer or other valuables.
“It could just be random, right?” she said. “But certain things lead me to believe it wasn’t random at all. I mean, somebody took my cowboy hat. Who would come in and take a cowboy hat? It’s my baby.”
She added that the intruder probably came in through the back door of the apartment, which might have been left unlocked. Melton found a Lane Transit District day pass sitting on her bed, but has no further clues.
“I don’t know exactly what it was or why it was,” she said. “There’s no way I can definitely say it was a hate crime.”
The candidate said during ASUO elections last spring, executive candidate Oscar Arana was subjected to a similar crime when items were stolen from the MEChA office.
Melton said Thursday’s issue of the Emerald, which listed all candidates running for ASUO positions, could have incited someone to vandalize her room. It just seemed too coincidental to be a random crime, she said.
“Someone doesn’t have to write ‘Die dyke’ on the wall for it to be a hate crime,” she said.
Contact the news editor at [email protected].
ASUO candidate reports vandalism, theft
Daily Emerald
March 14, 2003
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