The University student who lodged assault and criminal mischief charges against ASUO Vice President Eduardo Morales has dropped the charges, Eugene Municipal Court trial clerk Michelle Dunn said.
Morales released a statement Wednesday through his attorney, ASUO Legal Services Director Ilona Koleszar, but declined to comment further.
“Eddy has asked me to convey that he is very relieved that the case was dismissed,” the statement read. “Because he is sensitive to the fact that the situation involved not only him but another University of Oregon student, he does not want to say anything further regarding this case.”
University senior Erica Hass alleged that Morales pushed her down, dragged her several feet by her ankle and broke her cell phone outside Taylor’s Bar and Grill on Sept. 12, 2003. Hass dropped the charges against Morales last month, Dunn said.
“I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” Hass said. “It just was very stressful.”
The city prosecutor’s office had the option to continue pressing charges but choose not to, Dunn added. The prosecutor’s office also would not discuss the case.
Despite dropping the charges, Hass maintains that the Sept. 12 incident took place as she
described it to the Eugene Police Department. She said that if Morales would have called her the day following the alleged incident and apologized instead of denying the incident occurred, she would not have pressed charges.
“He knows what he did,” Hass said. “I know what he did … My best friend saw what he did. He knows what he did, because I wouldn’t make something like that up.”
Hass said Morales hired a “private investigator” to follow her around and talk to her friends and roommates.
“I wasn’t prepared for that at all,” Hass said. “I didn’t like my privacy to be invaded like that.”
Morales would not comment on Hass’ allegation that he hired a private investigator.
ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster said ASUO would not comment on the issue
because it could not take sides in the case.
“I think as soon as an organization that’s supposed to speak on behalf of all students speaks on behalf of only one student, then you’re kind of running into problems,” Foster said. “We’re not the ones that were involved in the situation. It didn’t happen in the ASUO. It’s not something that even hits us. It hasn’t affected any of our programming. It never came into our office. We did not ever go and interact with it. We’ve always been outside of it.”