A Penn State student was accused Sunday of assaulting an emergency medical technician shortly after being asked to leave downtown State College bar.
Joseph A. Draper, 21, was arrested and charged with a felony count of aggravated assault, three misdemeanor counts of simple assault and summary counts of harassment and public drunkenness. No defense lawyer for Draper was listed.
He was asked Sunday to leave Champs Downtown, 139 S. Allen St., but refused and said he was “of a legal drinking age,” a State College police officer wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
He smelled of alcohol, had glassy eyes and was unsteady on his feet, police wrote. Draper also said he was “doing nothing wrong by standing outside being drunk,” police wrote.
He was taken by Centre LifeLink EMS to Mount Nittany Medical Center to be treated for an alcohol overdose. Police said he became aggressive on the way to the hospital, shouting profanities and kicking, swinging and spitting on EMTs.
Draper struck one of them twice in her upper torso while calling her an anti-gay slur, police wrote. A Black officer said Draper then called him the N-word.
“We are aware of these criminal charges and the allegations of hateful and racist language — this kind of rhetoric does not belong at Penn State,” a university spokesman told the Centre Daily Times on Tuesday.
The university’s Office of Student Accountability & Conflict Response is looking into the allegations, the spokesperson said. If Draper is found to have violated Penn State’s Student Code of Conduct, he could face discipline from the university and separate from the criminal prosecution.
He was briefly incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility after District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker set bail at $15,000. He was released Sunday, the jail said Wednesday. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 5.
