CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) - A former student at St. Louis Community College's Meramec campus was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for assaulting a female student in a bathroom, a crime that led to the ouster of top officials.
Jevon Mallory, 20, pleaded guilty to felony assault in October.
He was caught choking Blythe Grupe in a women's bathroom at the campus in Kirkwood on April 18, 2013. Authorities say Mallory either hid in a stall or followed Grupe into the bathroom, then grabbed her around the neck.
An instructor heard Grupe's screams and stopped the assault. She was treated for neck bruises, ruptured blood vessels and a cut on her face.
Mallory was released by campus officials within hours of the attack even though he admitted he was trying to "withdraw her from life," and that he attacked the stranger to "vent his rage." Other students, faculty and staff were not immediately alerted to the attack. Campus officials went public only after Grupe, then 19, went to news organizations.
A report commissioned by the college board of trustees said the handling of the incident showed "a lack in leadership and management from key personnel at the district and campus levels."
The police chief and a vice president of student affairs for the Meramec campus were removed, as was the police chief for the community college district. The president of the Meramec campus resigned, and Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey left later in 2013 after trustees voted not to renew her contract.