“Chuck,” the person who allegedly harassed a female student behind the Student Center last semester, has been identified as Chukwudi Igbokwe by the University Police Department (UPD).
Igbokwe, a Montclair State student, allegedly approached the woman and asked for her phone number. When she declined and turned to walk away, she reported to UPD that he grabbed her arm in a final attempt to get her number.
After an alert email was sent to all students, several similar incidents were reported to UPD allegedly involving Igbokwe.
Igbokwe received a citizen-on-citizen complaint summons for harassment on Dec. 16. This type of complaint is processed through UPD. However, it is specifically a charge pressed against an individual by another citizen. These types of charges against a suspect do go through the department system, but this person is not formally charged by the state. Igbokwe is still required to appear in court in order to deal with the repercussions of the charges pressed against him.
He is set to appear in Little Falls Municipal Court on March 30. Captain Kieran Barrett, spokesperson of UPD, said he was told that Igbokwe will maintain his innocence.
Igbokwe is being represented by Fava Law Firm. Charges are still pending, according to Igbokwe’s lawyer, who refused to make any comments about his case.
Barrett said about the string of reports that “all were similar in nature in that the suspect was harassing female students by persistently asking for contact information, refusing to let them leave and, at times, demanding that they put his cell number in their phones.”
The names of the other students involved in these incidents, as well as the one occurring on Dec. 2, will not be named due to the victims’ right of privacy. Victims have the right to press charges even after an incident has taken place. UPD advises anyone who feels threatened in any way to file a report.
