Feds clarify EMU crime report

Letter to president says report misinterpreted when Fallon knew dorm death was a homicide.

Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

The U.S. Department of Education has written a letter of clarification to Eastern Michigan University President John A. Fallon III after a damaging report released earlier this week implied Fallon knew about a campus homicide sooner than he had previously said.

The author of the report acknowledges that it may have been misinterpreted to criticize Fallon, who is fighting to clear his name and retain his job.

"It is very important for EMU and everyone involved in this investigation to have accurate information about the various reports disseminated," Fallon said in a statement Thursday. "I am hopeful that the DOE's correction will help everyone to better understand the sequence of events."

The mix-up centers on the department's investigation into allegations EMU violated federal law on numerous occasions by failing to alert students of the homicide of Laura Dickinson, 22, and by misreporting campus crimes for three years.

Dickinson's body was found in her dorm room Dec. 15, naked from the waist down and with a pillow over her head. An EMU release at the time said there was no reason to suspect foul play.

Fallon has maintained he didn't know Dickinson's death was a homicide until police arrested a suspect two months later, on Feb. 23, and therefore had no reason to question the "no foul play" statement. An earlier independent investigation by the law firm Butzel Long also found that Fallon relied on Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Vick for information and didn't know about the murder investigation.

But the Department of Education report cited letters Fallon received from police saying Dickinson's death was being investigated as a homicide from the onset. However, the report didn't reference the date of the letters -- which Fallon didn't receive until March.

"In writing the report, we did not mean to imply that you were in possession of these letters prior to the arrest of the suspect," according to letter from the Department of Education to Fallon.

The e-mailed letters were dated March 2 and March 5 and were from two law enforcement officials who were critical of EMU's handling of information in the Dickinson case.

Mitch Cary, who authored the section of the report that's in question, acknowledged he should have stated the e-mail dates, which don't contradict Fallon's earlier statements that he didn't know Dickinson's death was a murder until fellow student Orange Taylor, 20, was arrested.

Calls for Fallon's resignation have intensified in recent weeks with EMU's faculty council issuing a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

Thursday's correction "changes absolutely nothing for us," said Howard Bunsis, president of EMU's professors union, which renewed its plea for Fallon's ouster. "If he didn't know this was a homicide from Day One then he is incredibly incompetent."

Despite the criticism, Fallon remains committed to his job.

"Never again will such a confounding series of mistakes be made on my watch," Fallon said last month. He has apologized to the EMU community for the university's handling of the case.

"The president is ultimately accountable for everything that goes on," he said.

The 568-page Butzel Long report, commissioned by the regents, found that Fallon didn't have relevant information when he signed off on the "no foul play" statement. EMU Regent James Stapleton said he's confident in that report as it's more detailed than the 19-page Department of Education investigation.

"In our opinion, the Butzel Long report accurately reported the timeline in which President Fallon received knowledge that Miss Dickinson's death was a possible homicide," Stapleton said.

You can reach Marisa Schultz at (313) 222-2310 or at mschultz@detnews.com.