Man arrested for break-in at Arrington Hall over Thanksgiving weekend

By SARAH GRAMMER, EMILY HOLLINGSWORTH & CAITLIN WILLIAMS

UMW Campus Police Lieutenant Bill Gill visited residents of the Alvey/Arrington community on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. and discussed a break-in that happened in Arrington Hall over Thanksgiving break, along with other issues related to UMW Police. Gill talked with approximately 20 students in Arrington Hall about their concerns with the UMW police department during the meeting.

A 21-year-old man from the Fredericksburg area, John Dusek, reportedly broke into and lived in the room of two students over the break. After students returned the break-in was discovered. Upon campus police investigation it was discovered that items from the room had been stolen. Dusek was arrested a week after Thanksgiving break when trying to enter the University Center. Dusek also reportedly broke into other students’ rooms, stealing cash and alcohol.

According to the UMW Police Department’s Daily Crime Log and confirmed by Lieutenant Bill Gill, there were two incidents relating to Dusek’s breaking and entering. An instance of trespassing was recorded on Dec. 1 in Arrington Hall. A second report on Dec. 7, listing possession of marijuana, possession of schedule and three instances of trespassing were also recorded, in addition to the arrest made in the University Center.

According to public online records in the Fredericksburg Circuit Court, a John Paul Dusek was charged with grand larceny of a vehicle, a felony case, according to the record, with the hearing date on July 2, 2015. The same Dusek had a hearing on Jan. 12 of this year for one charge of possession of marijuana and two charges of possession of controlled drugs. The offense date for all three charges was Dec. 7 with the complaint that the incidents “border UMW.”

After the hearing of the incident and the sexual assault that happened over winter break, students began voicing their concerns about the UMW police department’s performance.

Freshman Eve Gallegos first heard about the incident in Arrington Hall more than a month ago. “I was shocked at the fact that someone outside the university could have been in the building for such an extended period of time,” Gallegos said.

Gallegos also expressed concern that someone who was not a registered student could get access to the building in the first place. According to Gallegos, the incident has caused distrust toward UMW Police by students.

“This all goes back to my distrust of the university’s police department,” Gallegos said. “In addition to this, several other instances have added to my distrust of the UMW police (bike theft case and police assault [of an area woman]). I want to put my faith in those that are here to protect us, but they just seem to be making it harder to do so.”

In order restore students’ faith in UMW Police, Gill came ready and answered questions of concern from students, encouraging them to download the RAVE Guardian App.

The app is to help friends and loved ones know where the user is and where they are going. If they do not get to their designated place within a reasonable time, then it provides a starting place for law enforcement to try to find them. But as Gill said, only about 340 students out of the entire student body of about 4,000 have downloaded the app.

Gill mentioned during the meeting that there are currently two new officers being hired by the UMW police, one male and one female.

Another topic Gill brought up to the residents was about the Chief Hall’s Adopt-A-Hall program that began this year. This program will require every residence hall to have an assigned UMW police officer to patrol the area. The program, according to Gill, has yet to take effect in the Alvey and Arrington residence halls.

“We’ve dropped the ball a little with getting an officer placed in these dorms,” Gill said. Gill has now been assigned to the Alvey and Arrington residence halls, in the hopes to prevent a future break-in.

Izzy Briones contributed to this report