Alexandra Pennell, a former student at
Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), has been charged by
police with faking her own anti-gay harassment.
Pennell received an outpouring of
support during a March 13 rally after she reported receiving several
harassing notes.
“All I have to say is that I'm not
going to be run out of my home, and I will not be intimidated by
hate,” she told the hundreds of students who attended the rally.
CCSU police began to suspect Pennell,
19, after a video surveillance system placed in Pennells' dorm room to
identify the suspect was twice disabled.
Police confronted Pennell after they
installed a second camera in a hall closet without her knowledge, the
Hartford
Courant reported. Pennell was videotaped sliding one of the
notes under her door.
She confessed to police that she had
written the notes to get her roommate's attention, Siobhan Dooley.
Dooley provided police with a letter
she had received from Pennell, in which she says she left the notes
because she feared her friends were abandoning her.
Pennell has pleaded not guilty to eight
felony counts of fabricating evidence, eight misdemeanor charges of
lying to police, eight misdemeanor counts of filing a false police
report and one count of making a false statement to police.
Officials have barred Pennell from
attending any school in the Connecticut state university system for
five years.