Penn Police stopped rape suspect

The man accused of the 1998 murder of Wharton graduate student Shannon Schieber was stopped and released by authorities near campus when he lived in the area, according to Penn Police.

Troy Graves, 30, was arrested last month in Fort Collins, Colo., in connection with a series of sexual assaults there. According to law enforcement officials, DNA also links Graves to several sexual assaults in Philadelphia, as well as Schieber's murder.

Last week, Graves pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting five women in Colorado. He was given a life sentence.

Penn Police stopped Graves near the 200 block of S. 41st Street in the early morning hours on January 5, 1999. On May 10, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that police had acted on an earlier call about a suspicious person in the area.

When the stop occurred, the Philadelphia Police Department had not yet released its first composite sketch of the so-called "Center City rapist," who is now suspected to have been Graves. At the time, Graves was living near 41st Street and Baltimore Avenue.

But in a May 9 interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn Police officials denied ever stopping Graves.

Deputy Chief of Investigations William Danks said that the department had originally denied the incident because it had been instructed by city officials not to divulge such information.

"Didn't want to tell you," Danks said. City officials "asked us not to give out any information at that point."

Both Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush and Police Chief Thomas Rambo were present at the May 9 interview, along with Danks.

Rush declined to comment further on the stop and the department's original denial. Rambo did not return repeated phone calls, and his assistant said that he was not on campus yesterday.

Danks said Tuesday that Graves was stopped by officers on patrol through the area.

"Our police were on patrol and they had a call earlier in the evening," Danks said. "The report says he was stopped in relation to a prior incident and stopped for investigation."

Danks said that the officer who stopped Graves no longer works for Penn Police, and he declined to release the officer's name.

According to the Inquirer report, the Penn Police stop was not the first encounter authorities had had with Graves. Graves was questioned on September 9, 1997 by Philadelphia Police -- one of at least two such incidents involving city police, the Inquirer reported.

Sylvester Schieber, Shannon's father, said that he places no blame on Penn Police for letting Graves go, but thinks the Philadelphia Police mishandled the case.

City police "had a detailed memo that they put together in August of 1997 in which they linked the four prior cases, and they didn't inform the community," Sylvester Schieber said.

Sylvester Schieber, who filed suit against the city in October of 1998 alleging that Shannon's death could have been prevented, has been a vocal critic of both the city of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Graves now faces Philadelphia charges against him, including Shannon Schieber's murder.

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham has yet to say whether or not she will seek the death penalty, a punishment which Shannon Schieber's parents have said they are opposed to.

But according to the Inquirer, Philadelphia prosecutors are also working on a deal with Graves in which he will plead guilty to charges here provided the city does not seek the death penalty and allows him to serve his sentence in Colorado.

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