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March 7, 2008 - 9:46AM
Updated: March 7, 2008 - 10:37AM
ASU police arrest man in groping cases
Nicole Beyer, Tribune
Arizona State University police arrested a suspect Friday morning in a sexual abuse case involving groping complaints on campus.
Police seek man in groping incidents at ASU
VIDEO: Watch Tribune reporter Nicole Beyer's report
Woman groped on ASU campus
Matthew Joseph Maxwell, 21, was arrested about 1:30 a.m. on suspicion of groping a female student on Tuesday at the Student Services Building. ASU police Cmdr. Jim Hardina said detectives were also exploring a possible link to a similar groping incident that occurred on campus about 20 minutes later.
Maxwell has also been accused of touching female students inappropriately at the ASU bookstore on Wednesday, but police determined that his actions at the bookstore were not criminal.
Hardina said Maxwell is a current or former ASU student from Goodyear.
Hardina said Maxwell touched a woman's breasts on Tuesday at the Student Services Building as she was leaving a restroom. The second incident occurred about 20 minutes later, but Hardina said the victim did not report the crime until Thursday afternoon.
Hardina said the victim in the second groping case was an international student, and detectives had to deal with a language barrier.
The third incident occurred Wednesday at the campus bookstore, where women told police they were inappropriately touched by a “creep.”
One female bookstore employee told the Tribune that a man rubbed up against her and another female co-worker. The women said the same man also targeted several female shoppers.
Officers talked to Maxwell at the bookstore but did not arrest him because they did not consider his actions intentionally criminal — and at the time they did not have information linking him to Tuesday’s incidents.
“If he grabbed the girls, that would be a crime,” Hardina said.
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