Dear Fairfield Mirror, Office of the Dean of Students, and Fairfield University Student Body,
I would like to set the record straight about my involvement in last weekend’s Dolan Hall brawl. First, I was actually not present during the event that was mentioned by the press. The incident I did witness was a previous confrontation; while leaving my room I witnessed a fight between my roommate, his brother and a few other students from down the hall. I did what I believe to have been right, which was to try to protect everyone and help break up the fight. I hit no one in the process and had minimal contact with anyone. The confrontation I observed was broken up.
Afterward, I went back to my room. I was not present for the later altercation that supposedly included the involvement of weapons and left thousands of dollars of damage in its wake. Later, I answered a knock at my door to find a Fairfield police officer. He threw me against the wall and handcuffed me. The purpose for this detention was that the officer had reason to believe I was involved in the second altercation. I felt mistreated, disrespected and under attack. His refusal to hear my side of the story and see my innocence caused me to feel this way.
I was then arrested because the officer had “probable cause” to my involvement in an event that I was not even present at. After sitting in a jail cell for hours I was finally able to tell my story to the sergeant, who realized that I was not involved in the altercation they were investigating, besides rooming with one of the parties involved. Despite his realization, I was still charged with disorderly conduct, meaning unruly and/or offensive, rude behavior. I am currently working towards getting this charge dropped.
The part of this that is most unsettling it the press’ connection with this story. As news of the this night was released to the press, the lack of truth to it all and the harm to my reputation was out of control. My name and face has been linked to this story even though I was not involved. Even this paper, The Mirror, thought that it was alright to report about one of the University’s current students’ involvement in an incident they knew little about.
I was very displeased to see my character desecrated in so many places. I have even heard of a university professor who slandered me in name to his classes. I was not even present at the incident that brought local police to our campus. I am very upset that a story about me has picked up so much attention, especially since I was just trying to break up a fight.
I felt it necessary to write this article so I can defend my character and set the story straight.
J. Brendan McGlew
Leave a Reply