Student Arrested After Break-In

A Harvard sophomore was arrested last Tuesday after he broke into a building he thought was The Harvard Crimson, the student and Cambridge police said.

Responding to a burglar alarm at 12 Plympton Street around 3 a.m. Jan. 2, officers took into custody Vali D. Chandrasekaran'03, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon.

The Crimson, located at 14 Plympton Street, leases the space next door to a branch of the English Language Center, a private company.

In an interview, Chandrasekaran admitted to breaking into the building.

He said he acted in the context of the Lampoon's rivalry with The Crimson, which dates back to the Crimson presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, '04.

"It was us fucking around with each other like we always do," he said. "I wouldn't have been there were I not a member of the Lampoon," he said later.

Stephen C. Hely '02, the president of the Lampoon, said that the humor magazine has no official comment on the incident.

"We are treating it seriously, though we were just having fun," he said.

Chandrasekaran said that as soon as he realized that he was not actually in The Crimson 's offices he waited for police to arrive.

The building's burglar alarm had begun to blare, he said.

"That's why I was caught," he said, adding, "I have no desire to do anything to the English Language Center."

Cambridge Police Department (CPD) spokesperson Frank D. Pasquarello confirmed that Cambridge Police arrested Chandrasekaran.

According to workers in the English Language Center, Chandrasekaran cut through a window screen with a pair of wire cutters and proceeded to re-arrange furniture once inside the building.

Alan E. Wirzbicki '01, the president of The Crimson, declined to comment.

He would not say whether The Crimson intends to ask prosecutors to pursue the charges.

Chandrasekaran has been charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of twenty years in jail.

His trial will take place after the spring semester begins.

Chandrasekaran also confirmed that he has been the subject of an Administrative Board action, though the results of Ad Board hearings are confidential.

Chandrasekaran said he does not yet have a lawyer, but he does not see his situation as desperate.

"I'm not particularly worried," he said.

--Staff Writer Andrew J. Miller can be reached at amiller@fas.harvard.edu