University police have served a search warrant seeking a DNA sample from a UNM alumnus in the investigation of an alleged campus sexual assault that took place at the SAE fraternity house Feb. 28.
The warrant was served June 5 by UNM Police Department Det. Michael McGinnis and filed the next day in Bernalillo County District Court.
The search warrant, signed by District Court Judge Albert Murdoch on April 22, granted police the right to obtain a sample of buccal cells with a cotton swab taken from the mouth of Steven Rodgers, 23.
According to the affidavit, Rodgers, a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the time of the alleged incident, sexually assaulted the victim, a 19-year-old UNM student, in his room at the SAE house.
Rodgers was a UNM student at the time of the alleged incident but graduated after the spring semester.
The cell sample obtained with the search warrant will be analyzed by the State Crime Laboratory and compared with a semen sample taken by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners on March 2 from items belonging to the victim.
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Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners is an organization specializing in the collection of forensic evidence for sexual assault investigations.
The affidavit for the search warrant also states that nurse examiners noted a purple bruise on the back of the victim's right forearm, a scratch on her right leg and a red area on the left side of her left forearm.
UNM Police Department Cmdr. James Daniels said the search warrant should be viewed as a tool used by his department to obtain evidence in the investigation of the alleged crime and that nothing will be decided until results of the analysis and comparison are completed.
"It depends on how fast the state lab can process it," Daniels said. "Right now we don't have anything."
After the results are returned from the lab, they will be handed over to the district attorney's office for case review, and that office will determine if there is a reason to prosecute, Daniels said.
Joe Garcia, SAE president at the time of the alleged incident, told the Daily Lobo in March the UNM chapter of the national fraternity was conducting its own internal investigation into the sexual assault allegation. Both Garcia and current SAE president Justin Phillips did not return phone messages left by the Lobo this week.
Rodgers said he has been advised to defer all media inquires to his attorney, Rudy Chavez. Chavez, who is a UNM SAE alumnus and has represented dozens of UNM fraternity members in criminal cases, said his client participated in a consensual sexual act on the evening in question and that he has evidence disputing the alleged victim's claims.
Frank Ginocchio, general counsel in the office of the executive director of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said that the national fraternity "asks all members to cooperate with police," in any criminal investigations.
"I do recall now there probably was an (internal) investigation," Ginocchio said. "Basically, if there was an investigation that is confidential."
Daniels said it is very difficult to determine when the State Crime Laboratory will finish its analysis of the two samples collected by authorities.
