The Fresno Police Department confirmed Wednesday that it is investigating an alleged assault that is sexual in nature at Clovis West High School.
“The original report that came in . . . was a sexual battery,” Lt. Bill Dooley said. “That is the allegation that we had. And that’s the investigation we’re working on,”
Fresno police are treating the case as a misdemeanor battery, which could still have a sexual assault component. No arrests have been made.
Sources have told GV Wire that multiple students were involved in the alleged attack in the Clovis West boys’ locker room and the victim was sexually violated.
In addition, sources said that the attack was witnessed by several bystanders who didn’t participate in the assault.
Dooley said all of the suspects are juveniles. He also told GV Wire that he anticipates the investigation will conclude next week and be turned over to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
Video Taken of Alleged Assault
Dooley said that there was a video of the alleged assault
“I think it went completely Facebook crazy. I believe everyone got sent videos on this. We are unable to comment because this is an open investigation. We’re not going to comment on the evidence that we’ve been provided. However, we are aware of a video that is out there,” Dooley said.
Clovis Unified Officials Respond to Allegations
Rumors have flown among the Clovis West community about the alleged incident. Meanwhile, answers from the district have been limited.
Fresno police “have been investigating since minutes after we learned of the allegation and asked them to investigate,” said Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants, who declined further comment pending the investigation’s outcome.
Clovis Unified Trustee Tiffany Stoker Madsen said in a statement, “I am committed to ensuring that all of our students feel safe at school and have confidence the District will conduct a thorough investigation in conjunction with Fresno PD.”
Police Investigation
The alleged incident took place Sept. 20, with Fresno police called to investigate on Sept. 23 when the district learned of the allegations. Clovis Unified has its own police force, which typically investigates crimes committed by students on campus.
But, Dooley said, Fresno police do get involved with a major crime like homicide or rape.
“Typically, we wouldn’t respond to one of those, but we did anyway to provide some assistance (to Clovis Unified), Dooley said. “Our detectives went out, we interviewed the victim. We interviewed independent witnesses, determined that it did not fall within our agreement and, typically, we would have turned this back over to Clovis Unified School District Police.
“However, we had already completed much of the investigation. As a courtesy and for continuity for the case, we agreed to go ahead and continue it until its end,” Dooley said.
The school is within the Fresno city limits.
