Three Arrested At Princeton

Three Harvard students were arrested Sunday after allegedly breaking into a Princeton University dorm room following the Harvard-Princeton football game, according to the Princeton Borough Police Department.

Tomas M. Vargas ’07, a 19-year-old Mather House resident, and Christopher P. Foglesong, a 25-year-old student at the Harvard Divinity School, were charged with burglary, criminal mischief and theft after the pair allegedly ransacked the room, police said.

Winthrop House resident John P. Chambers ’07 was charged only with criminal mischief for allegedly breaking into the room but not entering it, according to police.

The three students were arrested shortly after the victim—a Princeton undergraduate—reported the offense at 6 a.m. on Sunday. He claimed the perpetrators “gained entry to his room by kicking in a bottom door panel,” according to a police log entry from the Princeton University Department of Public Safety. Both vodka and a social security card were reportedly stolen.

The victim told police that he had just broken up with the sister of one of the suspects, according to an article in The Times of Trenton.

The three Harvard students arrested had stayed at Princeton dorms over the weekend, according to police reports.

Harvard defeated Princeton, 39-14, in the homecoming game on Saturday.

Chambers, Foglesong and Vargas—who confessed to police prior to their arrests—were released from police custody Sunday and will appear in court on Nov. 15. Under New Jersey law, all three could face up to one year in prison, according to Princeton Borough Lt. Dennis McManimon.

Both Chambers and Foglesong declined to comment yesterday and Vargas could not be reached for comment.

McManimon said he does not believe the case will remain under the jurisdiction of Mercer County Superior Court, where charges of this nature are normally sent.

“Based on the circumstances surrounding these charges, it is very likely that it will be downgraded to district court here in Princeton Borough,” he said. If the court remands the case down to Princeton Borough, it would most likely result in more lax consequences for the offense, McManimon said.

John T. O’Keefe, secretary of the Harvard College Administrative Board, said yesterday he had not yet heard about the Princeton arrests, adding that the College takes disciplinary action on a case-by-case basis.

“If there’s a court process, we usually wait for that to finish,” he said. “There’s always a conversation of some kind with the student...the Board always wants to know about how it happened.”

The arrests came about two weeks after three Cornell students and one Cornell alum were arrested for allegedly breaking into Sanders Theatre following the Harvard-Cornell football game.

Those charges were ultimately dismissed.