The former Penn basketball player who has been charged with committing a total of 10 on-campus burglaries is no longer a student at the University, according to the Division of Public Safety.
Anthony Bagtas — who goes by Tony — was arrested for a second time on April 10 and has now been charged with all eight of the burglaries that reportedly occurred in the Quad on March 22, as well as two other burglaries dating back to September 2013 and January of this year, Penn Police Deputy Chief Michael Morrin said.
Bagtas is currently in custody at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center. He has a status hearing for the April 11 charges scheduled on May 12 and a preliminary hearing for the March 25 charges on May 29.
Bagtas, still a College freshman at the time, met with personnel from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life on April 4, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said.
At the meeting, VPUL officials and Bagtas “came to a mutual agreement that because of a combination of issues — partly his criminal investigation — [Bagtas] would take a voluntary leave of absence,” Rush explained.
In taking this voluntary leave of absence, Bagtas’ status as a Penn student was revoked. As The Daily Pennsylvanian reported on Monday, Bagtas was released from the men’s basketball team prior to his March 24 arrest.
Rush added that Penn Athletics and administrators were notified of the possibility of Bagtas’ criminal activity “at the appropriate time” once Bagtas was initially arrested on March 24.
“There are never any notifications made to non-law enforcement personnel during an ongoing criminal investigation,” Rush said.
On March 24, Bagtas was arrested for two of the eight burglaries that reportedly took place in the Quad on March 22, but the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges on one of the burglaries at the time. Bagtas, a former resident of Riepe College House, was removed from the Quad and was released on bail following his first arrest.
After further investigation into the remaining March 22 Quad burglaries, Penn Police detectives found more information that led to Bagtas’ second arrest on April 10, Morrin said.
On April 11, Bagtas was charged with the other seven burglaries that reportedly struck Ware and Riepe College Houses on March 22 — including the burglary that the District Attorney’s Office previously declined to charge Bagtas with after his first arrest.
Officials from the District Attorney’s Office were unavailable for comment as of press time.
Bagtas was additionally charged on April 11 with a burglary that allegedly occurred in the Quad on January 15, and another burglary that allegedly happened on September 20, 2013 at the Zeta Beta Tau chapter house, located at 235 South 39th St., Morrin said. Morrin added that the September 20 burglary at ZBT involved laptops being stolen from the house.
Bagtas’ 10 burglary charges are accompanied by multiple counts of theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespassing. 11 Penn students were the victims of all of the burglaries with which Bagtas has been charged.
Bagtas’ attorney issued a “no comment” in regard to his client’s criminal charges.
In attempting to find a suspect for the September 2013 and January burglaries, Morrin — who oversaw the investigation — said that Penn Police worked backward from the March 22 incidents. When Penn Police began to look into the March 22 Quad burglaries, Morrin said that from the start it was “very possible” that the incidents were related because “they had the same manner, same method and happened in the same vicinity within the same specified time period.”
Morrin said that Penn Police are still determining whether other students may have been involved with the crimes for which Bagtas was arrested.
Rush expressed that the series of burglaries with which Bagtas was charged represent a “highly unusual situation.” She emphasized that students should never exit their dorm rooms without locking their doors.
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