Davidson College student arrested on sexual battery charge

A Davidson College student was arrested last week and charged with misdemeanor sexual battery.

The charge against George Coleman, 20, stemmed from a Jan. 15 on-campus incident in which a student said she was sexually assaulted, multiple media outlets reported.

The victim was treated at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, Observer news partner WBTV reported, citing a police report.

Coleman was arrested by the town of Davidson police on Thursday and is free on $5,000 bail, Mecklenburg County jail records show.

Davidson College officials confirmed Coleman is a student at the school but said federal law prohibits them from discussing details about individual students, WBTV reported.

State law defines sexual battery as engaging “in sexual contact with another person by force and against the will of the other person.”

Davidson College’s latest online crime statistics report shows 42 on-campus rapes were reported from 2013 through 2015, although 10 of the 16 rapes reported to the college in 2013 were for incidents alleged to have occurred in 2011.

“When a victim reports multiple acts of rape, each reported act of rape is counted as a separate sex offense,” the report added. The report lists no off-campus rapes being reported those years.

This story was originally published February 4, 2017 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Davidson College student arrested on sexual battery charge."