Students could face prison if convicted

Two Penn students charged with assaulting a University senior with a beer bottle could face years in jail and hefty fines if convicted, according to state sentencing guidelines.

College senior Bryce LeFort and Wharton senior Stephen Lande are facing charges of aggravated assault over an incident in which LeFort allegedly broke a glass beer bottle over the head of College senior Andrew Scharf, ripping off a portion of his ear. The incident occurred on Oct. 5 at Copabanana on 40th and Spruce streets.

Aggravated assault is a felony involving serious bodily injury to another person with a deadly weapon and an indifference to human life, according to the Pennsylvania penal code.

While an aggravated-assault charge alone can result in up to 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines, the students may face additional penalties due to the severity of damage they allegedly inflicted on the victim and the recklessness of the attack.

According to criminal-defense lawyer Patrick Artur, the students will almost undoubtedly face some time behind bars if they are convicted of the charges.

"With a case like this, it's important to know that it is generally - almost definitely - going to call for jail time," Artur said. They could even face time in a state institution, depending on how much, if at all, the victim is determined to have provoked the alleged attackers, he said.

While neither LeFort nor Lande has commented on the case, Scharf has said that the alleged attack was unprovoked. Scharf said that after having a conversation with one of the two students facing charges, he turned his back, only to have the bottle broken over his head.

However, a student who knows LeFort - who refused to be named for this story - said Scharf threw beer at Lande before LeFort struck him with the bottle. If true, this provocation could reduce penalties for LeFort and Lande.

The Division of Public Safety has not said exactly what understanding of the alleged events outside Copabanana resulted in the aggravated-assault charge.

Preliminary hearings will most likely be held next week.

Comments (14)

[QUOTE id="bae250c9-f808-4e71-b279-f21283a2e3f0"]Honestly, the whole thing makes me sick. Bryce and Lande, you are complete trash and don't deserve to go to a school like Penn. Bryce: What kind of classless hooligan smashes a beer bottle over someone's head? Do you think you're Tony Soprano? You could have killed the kid, and as a matter of fact, you're lucky you didn't; then you'd be facing a nice little homicide charge. You'll be lucky if you get a year in jail, although you deserve about 5. Lande: have fun trying to get a job on Wall Street. The corporate world really loves felons. Finally, I hope you are both expelled. It makes me uncomfortable to be on campus with you.[/QUOTE] hey you cocksucking scumbag, people deserve a secnd chance sometimes and these guys do. You need to go back to your awful cum swallowing hell hole you call home and die you bitchass ho.

First of all, the whole incident was provoked, scharf was obviously very drunk and acting recklessly and agressive. And secondly, i really dont think that ruining one, or possibly, two students lives over such a stupid incident is the right way to handle this. Regardless of whether or not either lefort or landy serve jail time, having a felony on your permanent record pretty much screws you for the rest of your life. I know all the people involved and can assure that if the glass was intentionally broken over scharfs head (which im pretty sure it wasnt) it was not intended to to so much damage, and also a kid like lefort is probably the last person who would ever do such a thing. Anyone that was at copa needs to come forward and atleast explain how the whole incident was provoked, regardless of whether something was intentionally broken over scharfs head, or else two kids may face undeserved punishment.

When you are a complete ass of a person and think your parents money entitles you to treating people like trash (i.e. pouring a pitcher of beer on someone), bad things MIGHT happen. Clearly wrong to smash beer bottles over people's heads.. but a word of advice for sharf in his future: try not to offend people and open yourself to reprisals,you don't know what might happen...why open yourself to being surprised by too violent of a response? Better to avoid altogether mein... On a less objective sidenote, this "victim" is usually an ass to everyone that doesnt look like a wealthy preppy labrador. Thanks, Copaman

i really hope lande and lefort get off without any punishment. everyone knows that when you are drunk, you do foolish things and while this one happens to be extremely foolish and harmful, i highly doubt it was done with the intent of gravely hurting the "victim." also, i couldn't agree more with the previous comment in that i think this should serve as somewhat of a wake up call to scharf. stop treating people who aren't members of the GOP and your country club like shit and have some respect and decency. lastly, i think he should drop charges, especially because he knows the kids and knows that they didn't mean to hurt him so badly. we are all adults here on campus, but we act like kids from time to time and i don't think it will take jail time to teach lande and lefort a lesson. i am very sure they will be less reckless in their ways. to scharf, your a big baby. grow up and stop being an ass.

A legal question: I assume that only one of the two students actually smashed the beer bottle on scharf's head. What did the other student do that made him guilty of felony assault? If one of my friends smashes a beer bottle over someone's head, could I get arrested for being on his side of the scuffle, without actually harming anyone?

[QUOTE id="c1782e86-8918-4dad-97f4-2c048d0dedd3"]Where in the article did you read that a pitcher of beer was poured on anyone's head? It said that a friend of Lefort said that scharf poured a beer on Lande. Lefort was the one who then smashed a bottel over Scharf's head--didn't throw it at him--smashed it over his head. I'm sorry grad student, but you should read more carefully. There is a HUGE difference between throwing a bottle and physically breaking one over someone's head. The latter can result in death. The only people who should appear in court are those who committed acts of violence or who conspired to commit acts of violence: lefort and lande.[/QUOTE] I didn't read it in the article. I know people who were there, people who aren't friends of either party involved, and thus have no vested interest in either party involved. Hence my desire to make my original comment - I was surprised at the statements that the attack had been unprovoked. If I am inaccurate about the throwing vs. breaking bottle on head, sorry.

Honestly, the two students above don't know what they are talking about...don't know the real story and it makes me sick that they would take shots at lande or leforts character.

Where in the article did you read that a pitcher of beer was poured on anyone's head? It said that a friend of Lefort said that scharf poured a beer on Lande. Lefort was the one who then smashed a bottel over Scharf's head--didn't throw it at him--smashed it over his head. I'm sorry grad student, but you should read more carefully. There is a HUGE difference between throwing a bottle and physically breaking one over someone's head. The latter can result in death. The only people who should appear in court are those who committed acts of violence or who conspired to commit acts of violence: lefort and lande. [QUOTE id="c1782e86-8918-4dad-97f4-2c048d0dedd3"]the attack was provoked. a pitcher of beer was poured on the guy's head. this doesn't excuse throwing a bottle of beer at someone and injuring them. all those involved should appear in court - no special treatment for upenn students. additionally, the university should use a student judicial board to investigate punishing those students involved.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE id="bae250c9-f808-4e71-b279-f21283a2e3f0"] In response to the two "disturbed" penn students above...I don't know if you know either of these kids, or if you are just some assholes who like to post replys to daily pennsylvanian stories for fun. But I know both of them as well as the victim (though not very well). You should feel badly for them that they have to go through all this. Lande didn't even do anything and is one of the nicest kids on this campus. Likely, this is just a pain in the ass for them, and I think it is ridiculous how penns newspaper is depicting lande and lefort. This is simply an unfortunate circumstance and you can go screw yourself for passing judgment on them. By the way, they will not get expelled guaranteed. [QUOTE]

the attack was provoked. a pitcher of beer was poured on the guy's head. this doesn't excuse throwing a bottle of beer at someone and injuring them. all those involved should appear in court - no special treatment for upenn students. additionally, the university should use a student judicial board to investigate punishing those students involved.

I don't want to share a campus with these kids. I'm honest frightened that a Penn student could be so violent.

Honestly, the whole thing makes me sick. Bryce and Lande, you are complete trash and don't deserve to go to a school like Penn. Bryce: What kind of classless hooligan smashes a beer bottle over someone's head? Do you think you're Tony Soprano? You could have killed the kid, and as a matter of fact, you're lucky you didn't; then you'd be facing a nice little homicide charge. You'll be lucky if you get a year in jail, although you deserve about 5. Lande: have fun trying to get a job on Wall Street. The corporate world really loves felons. Finally, I hope you are both expelled. It makes me uncomfortable to be on campus with you.

Note to anyone who finds this article on Google at a later date: All charges against Lande were dropped. Please read about it before judging him. See: http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2006/12/07/News/BeerBottle.Charges.Reduced-2527451.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailypennsylvanian.com&MIIHost;=media.collegepublisher.com#more

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