Michaela Tolpin | Guilty until proven innocent*

*Corrections appended

In the early morning hours of Sept. 9, a student at Georgetown University was brutally assaulted.

Why? Because he's gay.

According to NBC, the victim, whose identity remains anonymous, was leaving a party near Georgetown's campus when he was allegedly assaulted with homophobic taunts before being physically attacked. The victim was later checked into a hospital for treatment.

According to the media's recap of the story, one of the victim's friends overheard a student talking about the incident after a class. Taking note of the initials on his backpack, the student reportedly shared this information with the victim, who turned to Facebook in search of someone whose name bore those initials and who resembled his recollection of the attacker.

Three weeks after his attack, armed with hearsay and Facebook photos, the victim informed DC Metropolitan Police that Phillip Anderton Cooney, a Georgetown sophomore, resembled his attacker.

Cooney was arrested on Sept. 28 and charged with "simple assault with a hate/bias specification." But although he has steadily maintained his innocence, a pre-trial date has been scheduled for this Friday.

While there is no way to justify a hate crime, the American public should be conscientious about passing uneducated judgment. After all, we're not the ones sitting in on criminal proceedings.

It is important to remember that the weight of our opinions could make or break a person's future. And when it comes to Phil Cooney, who is due to graduate from one of the nation's top universities, it seems as though it could be a bright one.

Even when the American public is confronted with such a despicable act and astonishing moral degeneracy, justice in the court of public opinion should still reign supreme.

Any citizen of our great country is innocent until proven guilty. This truth bears no exceptions. Judicial processes are technical and meticulous, scrutinizing every last detail before passing final judgment.

"If you're arrested, it doesn't mean you're guilty . that's what you have a judge and jury for," said Deputy Chief Mike Morrin of Penn's Division of Public Safety.

Unfortunately, American public sentiment, and the media along with it, seem to ignore this important differentiation.

Phil Cooney is a well-built, Caucasian, rugby-playing Texan. With a little media twist and bias, he has easily been made to fit snugly into the role of a wanton homophobe.Oh, and his dad used to work for the current Bush administration.

In Googling "Phillip Cooney + Georgetown," scathing headlines such as "Suspected Georgetown gay-basher has Bush Administration ties" and "The Bad Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree" pop up in various forms on the first three pages, linking to blogs that proceed to abuse Cooney, transforming him into a scapegoat for fiery anti-Bush sentiment. Other headlines are milder, such as "Student Arrested in Possible Hate Crime Beating," but only one in the first three Google pages advertises Cooney's repeated pleas of innocence.

There is very little objectivity in this case. Even before going to trial, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out in which direction the winds of opinion are blowing.

In a situation such as this, it is impossible not to bring up the Duke Lacrosse case. After being put through the kind of hell that would make the devil nervous, the suspects of this scandal were found innocent and officially apologized to. Unfortunately, the apology came too late. With more than enough time to burn its bias into the American mindset, the media has equated the term "Duke Lacrosse Team" with collegiate depravity and unforgivable bigotry.

In the hands of a scandal-thirsty media, Cooney seems doomed for a similar fate.

Unfortunately, according to procedure (at least here at Penn), it may have been difficult for the assailant's identity to be protected.

"Once an arrest is made, it's in the public record," said Lieutenant Gary Heller of Penn's DPS. "We have a daily crime log that we put all of our incidents on . that's made available to the community [whether or not there was an arrest]. That's part of our requirement to maintain our accreditation."

As intelligent members of the American public, it is important to bear in mind the media's cruel bias and the effect it has on the public. Although there's nothing quite as exciting as a new reason to hate Bush, a young man's future hangs in the balance.

If nothing else, then I hope the Duke Lacrosse case has taught us as much.

Corrections: - Phillip Cooney was arrested on Sept. 27, not Sept. 28. - The victim identified Cooney by looking through the friends of the person who had been heard overheard discussing the assault, not by looking for that person himself. - After the victim recognized Cooney through Facebook, he also independently identified Cooney in a photo spread provided by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Michaela Tolpin is a College sophomore from North Caldwell, N.J. Her e-mail address is tolpin@dailypennsylvanian.com. Tuesdays with Michaela appears on Tuesdays.

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