The trial for a Dartmouth alumnus indicted for allegedly raping and strangling a woman on the roof of Theta Delta Chi fraternity in April 2022 began yesterday. The woman — who was an 18-year-old Dartmouth student at the time of the alleged assault — testified throughout the day in court, providing graphic details of the night.
Kyle Clampitt ’20 was charged with 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and two counts of second degree assault involving strangulation in June 2023. Trial proceedings — which are taking place at the Grafton Superior Court in Haverhill, N.H., and set to continue through next week — began yesterday with opening statements from the prosecutor and defense and testimony from the woman.
The State will try to convince the jury that Clampitt, 26, is guilty by calling up to 26 witnesses to testify, according to court documents obtained by The Dartmouth. In addition to the woman, the State’s witness list includes alumni, current students at the College and nurses at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center who examined the woman after the alleged assault.
The State, represented by assistant county attorney Amanda Jacobson, began by recounting the woman’s alleged pleas for help, claiming that the woman “begged” the defendant to stop.
“‘Stop, no, no, you don’t have to do this,’” Jacobson said, quoting the woman.
Throughout her opening statement, which lasted around 20 minutes, Jacobson focused on the physical and psychological harms the woman suffered from the alleged attack.
“You’ll hear about and see the injuries that the defendant inflicted on [the woman] on a rooftop that he had brought her to see,” Jacobson said. “… Injuries on the outside of her body and injuries on the inside.”
Jacobson presented photographs of the woman’s injuries to the jury. She also presented a Snapchat video that the woman took after the alleged assault.
“I just got raped,” the woman said in the video, while crying.
The defense, represented by Robin Melone and Richard Samdperil, attempted to undermine the woman’s credibility throughout their opening statement and cross-examination. On behalf of their client, the defense attorneys also claimed that the encounter was consensual.
“She did not say no,” Melone said in her opening remarks. “She did not say stop. She said yes. And her body said yes. And her actions said yes.”
In her testimony, the woman described how Clampitt allegedly strangled and raped her on the night of April 23, 2022, after asking her if she “wanted to see something cool on the roof, like the stars.”
During cross-examination, Melone pressed the woman on how she had initially described the night to the Hanover Police Department, claiming she had been “inconsistent” on multiple occasions. For example, when the woman initially reported the alleged assault, she failed to tell Hanover Police Lieutenant Mike Schibuola that she had smoked marijuana on the way to the roof — a detail she later included in her testimony.
The defense also claimed that the woman had inconsistently described her intoxication level on the night of the alleged assault and the material out of which the fraternity’s roof is made. Melone also claimed that the woman’s injuries, depicted in photographs taken at DHMC, would not be consistent with her retelling of the night.
“You’ll see the photographs with reported injuries,” Melone said to the jury in her opening remarks. “Those injuries will not make sense with what she says happened. This was consensual sex.”
The jury for the case is comprised of 10 men and three women. One of two alternate jurors did not appear. The group sat across from the defense in silence throughout the proceedings. Flanked by his lawyers, Clampitt sat in a dark suit, blue shirt and tie.
Gary Apfel, a local attorney representing TDX, distanced the current brothers of the fraternity from Clampitt in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“None of the current members of the fraternity know the accused and none had any involvement in the incident,” he wrote. “None were members of the organization at the time of the incident. The [TDX] Corporation is deeply disturbed by the allegations contained in the indictments and has zero tolerance for sexual assault.”
Apfel added that the fraternity has “been assisting” local law enforcement with investigation requests.
“The Corporation’s ultimate goal is that justice be served,” he wrote.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Equal Opportunity, Accessibility and Title IX vice president Sarah Harebo emphasized the office’s commitment to “the safety and security of everyone on our campus.”
County prosecutors Marcie Hornick and Jacobson declined to comment beyond what is already available in the public record. Clampitt’s representation declined to comment. A College spokesperson declined to comment. Schibuola also declined to comment.
Charlotte Hampton is a reporter from New York, N.Y., studying government and philosophy. She likes writing about politics and art in the Upper Valley. Outside of The D, she likes reading Clarice Lispector, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Annie Dillard and one sentimental copy of “A Coney Island of the Mind.”
