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Harvard Junior Alleges Racially-Biased Arrest

Unable to Produce ID, Student Jailed by Harvard Police

At the station, Ntshanga was finger printed andentering, trespassing and possession of burglarytools--his keys to the basement.

Ntshanga said he was given only one phone call,which he used to call his close friend Dumi Banda'95. Ntshanga said he was promised more calls oncehe arrived at Middlesex Country Jail, but he neverreceived the calls. The student was thus neverable to call his family in South Africa or Collegeofficials.

Ntshanga asked Banda to find his student ID,but Banda and Ntshanga's roommate, Tespo Motoshi`95, were unable to locate it. They went to theFreshman Dean's office and spoke with Lorri A.McDaniel, the administrative assistant to the Deanof Freshmen.

McDaniel says she called Jeffrey Williamson,then-master of Mather House. Ntshanga, who livesoff-campus, is affiliated with Mather.

Williamson then contacted Epps, but by thistime Ntshanga had already been taken to Middlesexcourt for his arraignment.

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Ntshanga was booked, handcuffed and transportedto the jail where he sat for two hours next to arepeated rapist and near two large, reticent menwith chains on their legs, he says.

"That two hours was the worst experience of mylife," he says. "Right now I wouldn't want mychildren to go to jail for 15 minutes."

During the arraignment hearing, Epps showedproof that Ntshanga was a Harvard undergraduateand the judge released the student into the dean'scustody.

An Investigation

In his March 1993 letter to Marshall,Silverglate asked for the University to look intothe matter. But Ryan, the attorney appointed toexamine the case, did not begin his investigationuntil nearly 10 months had passed, according todocuments.

That investigation appears to have consisted ofmeetings and interviews of parties involved. OnJanuary 28 of this year, Ryan wrote to Silverglatein a letter that the police had acted properlybecause they had "no instantaneous means ofverifying [Ntshanga's] student status." Ryandeclared the case closed.

Ryan made no finding on Stanford's allegedracist remarks: "I neither believe nor disbelieveMr. Ntshanga and Sergeant Stanford in theirconflicting account of what did or did not happenat the prior encounter."

Running Naked

Ntshanga says he had a run-in with Stanford amonth before his arrest.

On that night, the student says he was workingfor the escort service when he was told to takefive students from Quincy House to the McGurdyTrack at Harvard Stadium.

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