Elster Returns To Campus

Joshua M. Elster '00 returned to Kirkland House yesterday evening to gather his personal belongings and meet with the house's senior tutor.

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn confirmed that Elster arrived at Kirkland around 5 p.m.--accompanied by an undercover Harvard police officer, Detective Seargent Richard Mederos, and his attorney Kenneth F. D'Arcy '58--and left about 5:30 p.m.

Elster was arraigned Monday in Cambridge District Court on three counts rape and two counts of assault and battery. He was released Tuesday on $10,000 cash bail.

The conditions of Elster's release require him to "stay away from Harvard altogether," said District Court Judge George R. Sprague '60 on Tuesday.

Upon arriving at Kirkland House yesterday, Elster and D'Arcy first met with Kirkland Senior Tutor Mark Risinger. They filled out "the administrative paper work for this case," Wrinn said.

D'Arcy, Risinger and Mederos then accompanied Elster to his dormitory room to "pick up some personal belongings," Wrinn said. Mederos is the officer who is in charge of the case.

Wrinn added that Elster is taking a leave of absence from the University.

D'Arcy said Elster is distancing himself from the University. "He can't go back to Harvard," he said. "It's a voluntary separation...a mutual choice."

Today, a grand jury in Cambridge District Court will hear Elster's case.

The district attorney will present the facts of the case before the grand jury which will then deliberate and decide whether to issue an indictment.