Falsely reported robbery linked to self-inflicted injury

Ithacan Staff
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Updated Sept. 1.

Freshman Daniel Halliday has been issued an appearance ticket for the Town of Ithaca court and charged with falsely reporting an incident — a third degree Class A misdemeanor — Dave Maley, associate director of media relations at Ithaca College, said.

Maley said Halliday is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 8 and the incident has also been entered into the campus judicial system.

Maley said Halliday is no longer on campus.

On Aug. 14, the Office of Public Safety advised all students on and off campus to remain indoors after Halliday reported that he had been stabbed in the right thigh during a robbery in the restroom of his Terrace 3 residence hall. He later admitted the robbery never took place and that the stab wound was self-inflicted, according to an accusatory complaint filed by the Town of Ithaca Court.

Public Safety used its on-campus Emergency Notification System to tell students to stay in their residence halls.

This was the first time the two-year-old outdoor loudspeaker has been used for an actual incident. The speaker was heard off campus, causing several residents to express concern about how to react.

County emergency services director Lee Shurtleff said he and his staff got about 10 calls complaining about the noise from the college’s alert system.

“Protocols were followed as expected,” he said. “What was unpredictable was the reach of the system outside of campus.”

Sophomore Ellis Williams, a resident assistant in Terrace 3, said his friends told him they could hear the message downtown. But Ellis said the message was almost inaudible from his dorm.

“You couldn’t hear what the system was saying, and it was really muffled,” he said.

Maley said a meeting will be held within the next two weeks to brainstorm options for revamping the system.

“We’re going to be following up and discussing what we might be able to do to reduce those concerns,” he said.