Pomona students Michael Zurhellen ’01 and Jaime Horta ’01 remain in jail facing theft charges for stealing electronic equipment from dorms at Claremont McKenna last semester. Zurhellen accepted charges without contest for three violations of the student code and was brought before a penalty board of the student Judiciary Council on February 22, 2001. The sanctions issued by the penalty board were expulsion from the college and prohibition from campus. Horta is on academic leave and consequently no Judiciary Board charges have been brought against him at this time.

The students are being held on $30,000 bail, which was reduced from $300,000 at their March 26 trial.

According to Campus Safety records, Zurhellen and Horta were stopped by Campus Safety officers at approximately 1:40 am on December 24. Upon searching the two students’ backpacks and the trunk of the car they arrived in, the officers found numerous stolen items, among them digital cameras, a CD player, CDs and DVDs, and MP3 players. Zurhellen and Horta admitted to the officers that they had burglarized a number of rooms in several CMC dormitories. Due to the volume of items in the trunk, Campus Safety contacted the Claremont Police Department. Police officers arrived on the scene and arrested both Horta and Zurhellen.

Zurhellen, in addition to the police charges, was charged with violations of three articles of the student code: Article III, sections four ("theft or wrongful appropriation"), seven ("unauthorized entry to college premises…or those of the other Claremont Colleges"), and nine ("violation of federal, state, or local law on college premises"). According to the charge sheet, he declined a full J-Board hearing and instead signed a charge sheet, accepting the charges against him. A Penalty Board, to which students who plead guilty are sent in lieu of Judiciary Board, issued a sanction of expulsion, effective immediately, and banned him from the campus.

Zurhellen had not been involved in any previous judicial action.

The Penalty Board left open to Zurhellen the option of petitioning the Academic Procedures Committee (APC) to consider giving him a Pomona degree if he earns enough credits at another institution to fulfill graduation requirements. According to his advisor, Professor of Philosophy Fred Sontag, he plans to pursue such an appeal.

The reasoning behind the sanctions included considerations of Zurhellen’s breach of trust with the community. While the judiciary has deferred to the APC as to whether or not a Pomona degree should be conferred upon him, they reasoned that a Pomona College degree represents more than satisfactory completion of academic requirements. In light of his actions, the board reasoned that Zurhellen has not demonstrated a capacity to act as a productive member of a larger community.

Sontag characterized the sanctions issued as too extreme. He expressed his discomfort with Zurhellen’s prohibition from the campus, noting that his offenses were not violent in nature. Citing Zurhellen’s clean disciplinary record and willingness to accept responsibility for his wrongdoing, Sontag said "He does not deserve to be thrown out of the Pomona community as long as he is willing to restore himself."

Sontag has remained an advisor to Zurhellen while he is in jail and visited with both students last Thursday.