College Inn assault suspect arrested

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Paul Wedding / Senior Staff Writer

The suspect in the assault on a College Inn resident was caught and arrested by the UNT Police Department on April 1.

Charles Lee Bacon was arrested for criminal trespassing and cited for assault by contact and solicitation, according to the UNT police log.

Bacon had been selling magazine subscriptions out of Missouri, and was dropped off on campus on March 26 to try to sell to College Inn residents, Public Information Officer John DeLong said.

“He had a very aggressive nature about his sales and the way he talked,” DeLong said.

When Bacon arrived at the victim’s door, he had walked inside of her room without her permission, and was very insistent on selling to her. She agreed, but said she had to walk to Willis Library to get money out of an ATM. When she left, he followed her.

On the way there she ran into one of her friends, and they set up a plan to get Bacon away from her.

She told the salesman that she would be back in a couple minutes after going to get money. Growing impatient, he went to find her. That’s when she told him she wasn’t going to buy the magazines, which upset him.

“She said that he had pushed her in the stairwell of Willis Library, and he left,” DeLong said.

On Wednesday, April 1, one of the UNT police detectives had made contact with the suspect by phone, and arranged an interview. He was then arrested afterward and booked into the Denton County Jail.

Associate Director for Housing Operations James Fairchild was not aware of the incident. Sidney Smith, the College Inn hall director, said there was not much they could do other than make the residents as aware of the incident as possible by putting out bulletins on their Facebook page and giving out proper safety tips.

Integrative Studies Junior Maria Rodriguez was one of several College Inn residents who was unaware of the assault. She said she wished College Inn had made the residents more aware.

“It’s important to let residents know when things like that happen,” she said.

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