NORTHAMPTON — A University of Massachusetts students accused of raping a fellow student was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday.
Ryder Chilcoff, 21, of Villa Park, California, was indicted by a Hampshire Superior Court grand jury on a charge of rape in connection to a December 2017 incident.
Chilcoff has not been arraigned on the charge but previously pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire Superior Court in January to three charges of rape. He was released on $7,500 bail.
UMass Police began investigating the alleged incident on Dec. 19 after following up on reported vandalism to Chilcoff’s dorm room door in John Quincy Adams Hall on campus.
When police interviewed a woman whom they believed was possibly involved in the vandalism, she began crying and told officers she woke up on Dec. 9 in Chilcoff’s bed without any pants or underwear on and had no recollection of how she got there or what happened inside the room, according to a statement of facts written by Derek Napoli, a UMass police officer.
The woman had been drinking in the Sylvan residential area of campus on Dec. 8 and did not remember leaving the area and the next thing she remembered was waking up in the dorm room on Dec. 9, according to court documents. She also told officers she felt that she had been taken advantage of and that she had sex.
Chilcoff told police the woman was an “active participant,” according to court documents. His attorney, Jonah Goldmsith, told the court in January that Chilcoff “absolutely denies the allegations.”