Western Kentucky University has placed a fraternity on interim suspension after one of its members was arrested and charged with rape.
A statement emailed to WKU Public Radio Friday afternoon by WKU Media Relations Director Bob Skipper came after the school’s police department released the arrest report involving the incident at the Sigma Nu fraternity house.
Fraternity member Benjamin Massingille, 21, of Tompkinsville, was placed under arrest Monday, and has been charged with 1st degree rape; 1st degree sodomy; and 1st degree unlawful imprisonment, after a woman reported Massingille attacked her following an early-morning argument on Feb. 27.
According to the arrest report, a friend of the woman told police she received a text message from the woman saying she was “in distress and that she was being assaulted”.
After receiving the text, the friend went to the Sigma Nu house and, with the help of a man inside the building, got into the room where Massingille and the woman were located. The arrest report says the woman was found sitting on a bed, partially unclothed and crying.
The friend took the woman to Greenview Regional Hospital where a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) performed a test on the woman, according to the report.
The university says the Sigma Nu chapter has been notified of its suspension pending an investigation into possible policy violations.
Massingille's case has been sent to a grand jury, and he was released on a $25,000 cash bond. A group of WKU students is organizing a rally in support of those who have been sexually assaulted. That event is scheduled to take place at noon on Monday, March 8, at the Centennial Mall on the school's Bowling Green campus.
