BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A former Indiana University student pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal confinement after facing charges that he tried to rape a female resident assistant in his dorm room last year.
(NOTE: The video in the player above is from a Jan. 2022 report on Kalp Patel's arrest.)
Kalp Patel was also charged with rape, strangulation, sexual battery, battery resulting in injury, resisting law enforcement and minor in possession of alcohol. All of those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.
Patel was sentenced to 1 1/2 years (546 days) of unsupervised probation, but no jail time.
About 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2022, Patel was allegedly screaming inside his IU dorm room. An RA at the coed dorm told police she was alerted by text and went to check on Patel. She knocked on the door but there was no answer. She waited several minutes, then used a master key to enter the room. She found Patel slumped over his desk. She called 911 for an ambulance.
Then she says Patel suddenly jumped up attacked her. According to court documents, Patel got on top of the woman, strangled her, touched her private areas, and bit her fingers. As she fought off the attack, she was able to call 911 again. IU Police arrived and pulled Patel off the woman.
Patel told police he took two THC-laced gummy bears at the nearby Campus View Apartments, then went back to his dorm room. He says he freaked out and felt like he was in a dream trying to "have fun" with the RA. He said he saw random shapes and two gangsters coming into his room.
Indiana University says Patel is not allowed to return to the dorm and is banned from the entire Bloomington campus.