Vandalism and trespassing charges against third-year College student Saam Fouladgar were officially dropped by the Commonwealth Attorney's office Friday.
The charges stem from an Oct. 28 incident on 13th Street that involved an altercation between Fouldagar, a brother of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at the time, and a University second-year who was then a Delta Sigma Phi pledge. Initially, Charlottesville Police tried to establish a connection between the incident and fraternity hazing.
Fouladgar said, the incident was misconstrued by third-party witnesses and blown out of proportion by police.
The day after the confrontation, Fouladgar's accuser expressed wishes to drop charges and refused to sign an arrest warrant.
"We never wanted to push charges," said the former pledge, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.
Nevertheless, police and the Commonwealth Attorney chose to follow through with the charges independently of the accuser.
"The Commonwealth Attorney's office believed that there was a connection between the charges brought against me and fraternity hazing," Fouladgar said. "The police officer and prosecutor chose to pursue the charges. No one else wanted to pursue it."
Fouladgar attributed the prolonged proceedings and the pursuit of charges that his accuser wished to drop to the police and Commonwealth Attorney office's unfounded efforts to relate the incident to fraternity hazing.
"There was no connection between my charges and fraternity hazing," Fouladagar said. "It's taken this long because they were trying to prove a connection between the two."
Fouladgar and his accuser were able to resolve personal issues soon after the altercation.
"Everything is straight," Fouladgar's accuser said. "Saam's a good guy."
Since Fouladgar and his accuser apologized to each other for the incident and were able to remain friends, Fouladgar said he believed the efforts of the police and the Commonwealth Attorney's office were unnecessary.
"If there were any other case like this that involved two friends and a person called the next day and wanted to drop charges, they wouldn't pursue it," Fouladgar said. "The purpose of the police is to solve altercations between people. If there is no problem, there is no reason to continue with charges."
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Platania declined to comment.
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