Man pleads guilty to sexual assault charge
By Colin Rushovich
Nov. 29, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Hilton Ingram Fisher was sentenced to 12 years in California
state prison after being convicted last month on one count of
sexual assault in connection with an incident on campus four years
ago.
Two separate incidents of sexual assault ““ one in the
second-floor women’s restroom of Schoenberg Hall and another
in the sixth-floor women’s restroom of Boelter Hall ““
were reported to have occurred on Jan. 10, 2001.
In a plea negotiation, Fisher pleaded guilty to the first count
of the two sexual assault charges, said university police Detective
Terry Brown.
Fisher is in no way affiliated with the university, said Nancy
Greenstein, director of UCPD community services.
The police had several leads, but a break in the case came when
Fisher was apprehended by the Los Angeles Police Department’s
Hollywood Division in fall 2004 for a narcotics offense and was
forced to provide a DNA sample.
His DNA matched the DNA left on the Schoenberg victim three
years earlier as well as on a crack pipe found at the Schoenberg
crime scene, Brown said.
Fisher had never been required to provide a DNA sample to police
for any previous offense, meaning that police were not able to
match his DNA until the narcotics offense, an offense that requires
such information, Brown said.
Fisher was arraigned for the sexual assault charges on Aug. 8 in
the Los Angeles Airport Superior Courthouse and was charged with
two counts of sexual assault in his arraignment: making a criminal
threat and oral copulation by force or fear. At the arraignment, he
pleaded not guilty to both counts, said Susan Matherly, deputy
public information officer for the court.
After several hearings, Fisher pleaded no contest in his Oct. 24
hearing to the first count of the two sexual assault charges.
The court dismissed the second count of the charge due to a plea
negotiation between the state and Fisher, said Deputy District
Attorney Margerite Rizzo.
In his sentencing hearing on Nov. 2, Fisher received a 12-year
sentence in California state prison, after being denied a probation
plea. Matherly said the court recommended Fisher be sent to
Atascadero Prison in the Central Valley.
When Fisher is released, he will have to register as a narcotics
and sex offender in the community he will reside.
He will also have to stay more than 100 yards from the UCLA
campus, Matherly said.
Greenstein said there was no pattern to the assaults since there
were no reoccurrences after the two initial incidents.
“The sexual assault was a rare occurrence,”
Greenstein said.
Immediately following the sexual assaults in 2001, members of
the UCLA community took greater precautions.
More people used the escort service and walked in pairs to
bathrooms, Greenstein said.
Various programs have been organized over the past few years,
including routine patrol, assigning lead officers to specific
areas, and crime analysis, Greenstein said.
