When the Justice Department in May accused the University of mishandling an incident of antisemitism from October 2024, the allegations — already covered in local media — began drawing attention nationally. Centered around an alleged incident of antisemitism that took place at a former, off-Grounds fraternity house, the fallout from the dispute made it all the way to the legal system and ultimately, the federal government.
A string of antisemitic text messages culminated in October 2024 with two confrontations — one of which included a firearm and ultimately led to the arrest of a student. That student is currently facing one felony and one misdemeanor charge in court. The fourth-year Jewish student and alleged victim of those acts — referred to by the Justice Department as “E.N.” — is at the center of the case and is alleging that the acts were antisemitic and that the University mishandled the case.
To get a more complete account of what took place, The Cavalier Daily reviewed court transcripts and other documents in addition to speaking to four residents of the house where the alleged incidents took place. All of the residents spoke on the condition that their names not be used and will be referred to as Residents #1, 2, 3 and 4. E.N. did not provide information directly, choosing to speak through his attorney.
DOJ letters and official responses
Throughout April, May and June, the Justice Department sent the University seven letters regarding its adherence to the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal policy. Ultimately, these letters culminated in the resignation of former University President Jim Ryan. And while most of the Justice Department’s letters targeted the University’s admissions practices and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, two of the letters addressed antisemitism and the safety of Jewish students on Grounds.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gregory Brown sent a letter to Ryan May 2 regarding an alleged incident of antisemitism in October 2024 against a fourth-year student with the initials “E.N.”
The letter said the Justice Department was made aware of a joint letter sent to the University by three Jewish advocacy groups — StandWithUs, the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center — condemning the University’s response to the alleged incident of antisemitism. The full letter from the Justice Department to the University was obtained by The Cavalier Daily through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“The facts surrounding this specific controversy and of the U.Va.’s alleged deliberate indifference and retaliatory treatment of the victim in response are, in a word, disturbing,” Dhillon and Brown wrote in the letter.
Before the incidents caught the attention of the Justice Department however, legal proceedings had already begun, and are still ongoing. After a failed attempt in June, the defendant — Robert Romer — was indicted on a felony charge of extortion in writing by a grand jury in October. He also faces an additional misdemeanor charge of assault.
Romer also faced disciplinary proceedings at the University, but the outcome of those proceedings were not disclosed to E.N or his family. E.N.’s attorney, who is also his father, said the non-disclosure shows the University is “indifferent” to the incident. The University is not required — but is permitted — by law to disclose the findings of the proceedings.
Romer’s attorney Graven Craig said the allegations by E.N. of hate crime, assault, firearm-related offenses, threats and other criminal misconduct are “entirely false.”
When asked about the critiques of the University’s response, University Chief Communications Officer Brian Coy said he could not comment on specifics, but that the University opposes antisemitism.
“The University opposes antisemitism and all forms of bigotry, and we take swift action to support students who experience threats or harassment and to hold offenders accountable,” Coy said.
When the matter first reached the Justice Department, federal officials and Jewish advocacy groups accused the University of mishandling antisemitism. Last month, Interim University President Paul Mahoney announced that the Justice Department had closed the investigation into the University’s handling of antisemitism. Residents of the house where it all took place have given conflicting accounts of the events — one on Oct. 23, 2024 with alleged assault, and one on Oct. 30, 2024 with the presence of a firearm.
Mixed accounts of events by residents
The house where the alleged incident took place was a former fraternity chapter house on Rugby Road. When the fraternity was terminated, the property was leased by E.N. along with a group which included transfer and international students, residents say.
While the group initially got along fine, residents say friction between them began when E.N. wanted to throw parties and have mixers with nearby sororities, something other house residents had expressed opposition to, they say. As this friction continued, responses from housemates only got worse.
“The stuff with [E.N.] would just get progressively more and more antagonistic, you know, finger pointing, and probably significantly harsher stuff was being sent to him as well,” Resident #1 said.
Throughout most of October 2024, antisemitic text messages in the form of videos, images, memes and other social media content were sent in the house’s group text by a few, but not all, house members. Partial and redacted text messages were obtained from E.N.’s attorney, and more complete and unredacted versions were obtained from Resident #1.
Examples of this content include an Instagram post, which appears to have been sent by Romer, comparing the Battle of 1820 to the “Battle of $18.20.” The post appears to be an image of Hasidic Jews fighting, an allusion to the antisemitic trope that Jewish people are cheap or stingy. The post was sent on at least two different instances in the group text. Another such image is one of E.N. himself attending a space-themed party, with the caption “Space Jew,” sent by Resident #3.
At least 11 other messages with antisemitic undertones or explicit antisemitism were sent by a few house members, some of them difficult or uncomfortable to describe. Some of these messages were sent by a housemate who confirmed to The Cavalier Daily that he is Jewish himself, including other online posts with remarks such as, “If the West Bank doesn’t belong to the Jews, then why is it called a bank?” and “John 3:16: Jews are gay retards.” This housemate did not provide a statement on the messages.
“They absolutely sent the text messages and the images to be antisemitic, to anger and upset [E.N.],” Resident #1 said.
The Oct. 23, 2024 confrontation
When E.N. posted about another event on social media after the housemates said they agreed not to host more parties, those residents say they confronted him the night of Oct. 23, 2024. Text messages sent leading up to and on the evening of Oct. 23, 2024 are the basis for E.N.’s accusations of a hate crime.
Romer appears to have sent multiple of the messages with content appearing antisemitic in the days leading up to Oct. 23, 2024. That night, text messages show he asked E.N. to come home from the library to hang out, while the house group chat — from which E.N. had been removed — discussed how to go about the confrontation.
The last text E.N. had sent Romer before Romer asked him to hang out was “Bro chill out with the Jewish s–t,” to which there did not appear to be a response. In regards to the confrontation, housemates said in the group text, “Let’s free Palestine” and “I got some rope,” and Romer texted “We are going to bring him to hell room,” or the basement, which residents said was the location of hazing activities when Pi Kappa Alpha resided in the house. Romer had also previously texted “I am going to attempt to Free Palestine. Anyone is welcome to join in on the beating.”
E.N. alleges that Romer assaulted him the night of Oct. 23, 2024, currently one of Romer’s charges in court.
Residents have provided varying accounts of that evening. E.N. testified in court that he was manhandled by Romer and forced from the kitchen to the top of the staircase leading to the basement, but voluntarily walked upstairs afterward.
Residents #2, #3 and #4 all described this confrontation as relatively calm, with Resident #4 saying “nothing got physical.”
“No one pushed him, shoved him, forced him anywhere. He walked to the entrance of the basement on his own,” Resident #4 said.
Resident #1 disagreed completely, calling it “hostile.” He said while he was not downstairs for the incident, it sounded anything but calm.
“There was a ton of yelling, I could tell people were really angry and being very hostile, by the tone of their voices, and then it just sounded like it was just continuously escalating,” Resident #1 said. “It just kept going and going.”
The Oct. 30 and 31, 2024 incident with a firearm
The escalation continued a few days later on the night and early morning of Oct. 30 and 31, 2024, when E.N. allegedly returned home to his room to find Romer there with a gun.
“Someone who had sent messages that I interpreted as antisemitic and I interpreted as pointed towards me, had previously threatened to fight me, didn’t apologize for it and then was waiting for me in my room holding a gun at midnight,” E.N. said in court. “That was something that was incredibly scary.”
The presence of a firearm caused some housemates alarm, leading them to question why the gun was there, according to Residents #1 and #3.
Resident #2 said the mood in the room that night was “calm.”
“[E.N.] and [Romer] were hanging out after the gun incident, to my knowledge,” Resident #2 said. “I was in the room after that, and everything seemed pretty calm.
Resident #3 said that E.N. did not seem threatened.
“[E.N.] did not seem threatened or scared the night of the gun incident, he only expressed confusion over who owned the gun,” Resident #3 said.
“[E.N.] did hold the gun. He knew it was unloaded. He did not intentionally point it at people for long periods but since he was holding it carelessly, the barrel did aim at people momentarily,” Resident #3 later added in a written statement to The Cavalier Daily.
E.N. denied those claims in court testimony when questioned by the defense, testifying that he did touch the gun to gauge if it was real, but did not hold it.
E.N. testified that at some point in the evening the gun disappeared and that Romer would not disclose its whereabouts. The gun had been purchased by another housemate, Resident #4, who let Romer handle it that evening.
Police ultimately came to the house and confiscated the weapon, arresting Romer Nov. 1, 2024. A spokesperson for the University or the University Police Department did not provide additional details about the policy for possessing a firearm in an off-Grounds residence.
Romer’s arrest was shocking and surprising, some housemates said.
“[E.N.] did not seem threatened or scared the night of the gun incident, he only expressed confusion over who owned the gun,” Resident #3 said. “My housemates and I were surprised when [Romer] was arrested, initially, we didn’t think it had to do with anything he had done in the house.”
Resident #1 saw it differently, saying he believed that there was no doubt that the actions taken against E.N., both on Oct. 23, 2024 and Oct. 30, 2024, were intended to intimidate him.
“Anyone could really see why [Romer] would be waiting for [E.N.] in his room with a gun. I think the writing is on the wall there … really trying to intimidate him,” Resident #1 said.
Residents say Romer is not antisemitic
The charge of brandishing a weapon is no longer being considered before the court after a judge dismissed it. However after a failed attempt in June, prosecutors successfully convinced a grand jury to indict Romer on the felony charge of “extortion in writing,” essentially a blackmail charge, in mid-August, in regards to the text messages the night of Oct. 23, 2024.
The court is also considering an assault charge with a hate crime component as a misdemeanor. When asked about how the prosecution plans to proceed with charges, Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joseph Platania said he would not comment on pending cases.
Resident #1 said he believes that the confrontation was the result of E.N.’s religious identity.
“They certainly did those things with the intention of being antisemitic or hurting [E.N.] because of his Jewish identity,” he later added.
Still, Resident #1 said that he did not think the housemates, including Romer, were antisemitic themselves, more that they would have said anything necessary to get under E.N.’s skin. He also questioned their judgment more generally.
“Whatever their intentions were, I think it's pretty obvious that everyone else in this house is a f—ing knucklehead,” Resident #1 said. “I did not trust them with their thinking of how to handle a firearm safely.”
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, E.N.’s attorney said the actions, combined with the text messages as context, reveal a clear instance of antisemitism.
“This isn’t a story about ‘boys being boys’ or housemates arguing over whether someone was playing music too loud,” he said. “This is a story of blatant antisemitism, a student forcing his way into a Jewish student’s room and then showing up in [E.N.’s] room a week later with a gun.”
Some residents of the house said that they agreed the text messages were clearly antisemitic — but no resident who spoke to The Cavalier Daily explicitly ever said they believed the instances of Oct. 23 and 30, 2024, or residents’ feelings toward E.N., were the results of his Jewish identity.
Resident #3 expressed a similar sentiment, saying he did not believe Romer was hateful.
“[Romer] was very immature and could even be a real jerk, but he was not malicious and he [was] not hateful or antisemitic,” Resident #3 said.
Of the four residents The Cavalier Daily spoke to, the closest one of them came to defending E.N. was Resident #1’s explicit statements about the actions taken by Romer being purposefully antisemitic to get under E.N.’s skin. Resident #1 also said that when he ultimately showed the antisemitic text messages to E.N., he was confronted by other residents of the house. Resident #1 said that he even slept with a hatchet under his bed in fear that other residents would retaliate against him for taking the side of E.N.
Criticism surrounding U.Va.’s response
After Romer’s arrest, the University moved E.N. to five different living accommodations within one week, including hotels, according to court testimony. An investigation commenced into Romer’s conduct, and possibly that of other housemates, in the University’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights on behalf of E.N., though the outcome of that investigation was never stated publicly. The University Judiciary Committee also began an investigation and trial into Romer and one other student, who purchased the firearm, and that outcome was never publicly stated as well.
A representative from the UJC declined to comment on the case.
The fact that the outcome of the case was never publicly announced is largely not surprising — the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act generally does not allow the University or the UJC to divulge details on cases involving students.
But according to emails obtained by The Cavalier Daily from E.N.’s attorney, he asked the University to disclose the outcome of the UJC trial, citing an exemption under FERPA which allows — but does not require — institutions to provide information about the outcome of disciplinary proceedings to victims of alleged assault.
The law states that disclosure is permitted, but not required, without prior consent from the student whose FERPA rights are being waived, in the instance of an alleged assault. In the emails, the University again denied the attorney’s request. Coy, the University spokesman, would not answer any questions about the matter.
“This matter is subject to ongoing criminal proceedings and federal privacy laws prevent us from commenting on specific student records,” Coy said.
DOJ and Jewish advocacy groups inquire about “retaliatory” complaint
Whether the University adequately handled instances of antisemitism is debated in the letters sent by the Justice Department to the University. The joint letter from the Jewish advocacy organizations, sent April 30, identified the University’s refusal to disclose the outcome of the UJC investigation as a key way the University was creating uncertainty for E.N. about how seriously it handles “blatant and violent antisemitism.”
Also central to the University’s handling of the incident is the fact that Resident #4 filed a counter-complaint with the EOCR office alleging E.N. had been Islamophobic toward him.
“All sorts of other text messages were also sent. I mean Islamophobic text messages were sent. Different controversial text messages were sent in that group chat,” Resident #4 said. “It was just a banter type of culture in the house.”
After speaking to the other residents, The Cavalier Daily could not independently verify Resident #4’s allegations and other residents could not recall any specifics. Resident #4 also declined to provide any evidence for his accusations.
In court testimony, E.N. denied using racially-charged slurs directed at Resident #4, but admitted to calling two Asian housemates “commie spies.”
The joint letter also demanded that the University drop the investigation into E.N. by the EOCR office and immediately investigate that accusation as attempted retaliation against E.N..
12 days after the joint letter was sent and 10 days after the Justice Department letter was sent, the EOCR office notified Resident #4 that there was no evidence to substantiate the claims, and that no witnesses could accurately recall any consistent evidence of Islamophobia.
“While one witness told the Investigator that he recalled hearing one of his housemates make jokes about Complainant’s race, he could not recall which housemate made the jokes, the specifics of the comments or the frequency with which the comments were made,” the investigator wrote. “Further, no witness could recall hearing any jokes about Complainant's color while living in the residence.”
Resident #4 said the witnesses he provided to the EOCR investigator told him they were never contacted. He said that if his complaint was retaliatory and truly had no basis, then the EOCR office never would have begun an investigation in the first place.
A representative from the EOCR office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
The idea that Resident #4’s complaint is retaliatory was referenced in the Justice Department’s first letter about antisemitism, sent May 2. The letter gave the University a week to meet the demands listed in the joint letter, provide reports on disciplinary proceedings related to the matter, offer proof that any disciplinary inquiries into E.N. himself were terminated, certify E.N.’s safety and more.
The Justice Department sent another letter June 16 referencing all of its previous letters to the University, stating that it had expanded its investigation into the University and citing handling of antisemitism as one reason that the University could face consequences.
The Jewish advocacy groups apparently received a reply from the University, but the University would not provide the letter to The Cavalier Daily via a FOIA request, citing “presidential correspondence.” The Jewish advocacy groups sent another letter to Ryan June 26, saying the demands had not been met. Ryan resigned the next day.
Romer’s Defense Attorney Graven Craig said in a statement to The Cavalier Daily that the Justice Department is throwing Romer into the center of the larger conflict between the Department and the nation’s top universities.
“It looks like the DOJ, for unknown reasons, has decided to come to the aid of [E.N.], where it can be inferred that there may have been proceedings against him for alleged violations of University and EOCR policies,” Craig said. “It appears to my client that the DOJ is trying to use this case to score points against a major university, with no regard at all for the damage it is doing to him.”
The Justice Department made no ultimate determination as the investigation was closed. In an interview with The Cavalier Daily Sept. 25, Mahoney did not share specific reasons for why the investigations were closed.
“We provided information about our policies and actions to the Department of Justice, and on that basis, they decided to close those investigations,” Mahoney said.
Antisemitism at U.Va. and beyond
Antisemitism at the University has a complicated recent history. The ADL assigned the University an “F” — a failing rating — on its 2024 antisemitism report card, leading members of the Board of Visitors and other groups to criticize the University for its performance. ResetUVA, a website created by the conservative Jefferson Council, pointed out the University’s failing rating by the ADL as evidence of Ryan’s poor leadership.
The University at the time responded strongly to the ADL’s rating, saying in a statement to 29News that it disagreed with the assessment.
“While we have received several reports of antisemitic behavior, ongoing inquiries into those allegations have yet to return evidence to substantiate the claims or to warrant disciplinary measures, despite substantial investigative efforts,” the statement read. “It appears initially that the ADL negatively graded many institutions for acts of constitutionally-protected speech, protest or student-led referenda.”
The Trump administration putting pressure on a university for how it has handled antisemitism is nothing new. The administration withheld billions from Harvard University and Cornell University, and millions from other Ivy League and top tier universities, including Columbia University, which it recently reached a settlement with.
But many of these top tier universities had high profile bouts with the Trump administration over their handling of antisemitism. Columbia faced challenges in the spring of 2024 after pro-Palestinian protestors set up encampments on school property and reports from the school found that Jewish and Israeli students were discriminated against and ostracized on campus.
These disputes at major universities drew weeks of national media coverage and headlining stories. A pro-Palestine encampment at the University however was strictly managed, with Virginia State Police and other law enforcement shutting it down quickly, using chemical irritants against protestors in the process.
According to the ADL’s website, the organization defines antisemitism as including vilifying Zionism — the belief that Jewish people have a right to their own state in Israel — which could potentially include some pro-Palestinian protests under that definition.
Since that time, however, the University has made progress as far as ADL ratings are concerned. 2024’s report card appears to have been revised on the ADL’s website to a D rating, and 2025’s report card assigned the University a C rating.
Looking forward
The University was faced with an incident of alleged antisemitism where house residents dispute the facts, and now the legal process continues to play out. Romer’s indictment on felony charges by a grand jury may raise the stakes for the University, especially if Romer is convicted.
It still remains unclear whether the University met the demands of the Justice Department in order to have the investigation closed. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general, did not respond to a request for comment.
A conviction of Romer or any future pressure from the Justice Department, along with the strong demands from Jewish advocacy groups, could mean continuing calls for the school to protect its Jewish students. The University maintains that it already has.
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