CU police arrested freshman psychology major Brynn Bewley after an altercation took place last month between Bewley and another non-CU student in Stearns West.
Front Range Community College freshman Sydney Hollingsworth suffered a perforated tympanic membrane, or a hole in her eardrum, as a result of the altercation. Hollingsworth said that her doctors told her that she may have permanent damage to her hearing.
“What I’m being charged with is a second-degree felony assault, which is basically called a heat of passion crime,” said Bewley. “If I was convicted with the crime in court, it would carry a five-year prison sentence.”
According to a CU police report, there is still a discrepancy about what exactly took place on Jan. 21 in Stearns West. While the report notes that Bewley and Hollingsworth both gave different accounts of who was provoked first, the basic story remains the same: One girl hit the other in response to either a verbal attack or heated discussion.
Hollingsworth claims that the fight began when she and her boyfriend, freshman open-option major Camilo Florez, decided to take a study break and walked out of his room and into the living room area of his quad in Stearns West. Hollingsworth said she was frustrated with how Bewley had supposedly yelled at Florez for calling the police after Bewley and her boyfriend, freshman international business major Andrew Fontanese, left another intoxicated friend in Florez and Fontanese’s room.
“I wanted to tell her, ‘It’s not cool that you yelled at him, and you don’t need to talk to him like that,’” Hollingsworth told the CU Independent. “’I don’t really care what happened and what took place but you don’t raise your voice to my boyfriend when he saved a kid’s life.’”
Hollingsworth said Bewley then proceeded to yell at her and slapped her left ear.
In the police report, Hollingsworth claims that when her left ear first started bleeding after she was hit, she thought that it was because Bewley’s fingernail could have cut her when she hit her. However, when she woke up the next morning with blood leaking from her left ear and noticed that she was having trouble hearing, Hollingsworth decided to make an appointment to see a doctor. After going to the doctor two days after the fight took place, Hollingworth said doctors told her she could have hearing loss for the rest of her life. On March 2, Hollingsworth will undergo a hearing test in order to determine how badly her hearing was damaged.
Bewley said she may not be entirely to blame for the injury.
“The reason this is a second degree assault is because her eardrum was perforated and the number one cause of a perforated eardrum is an ear infection and also a consistency of exposure to loud music, which working in an exotic dance club you would get that consistent exposure,” Bewley said.
However, Hollingsworth said she thinks she disagrees.
“Because I started having the ear problems after she hit me, there’s no denying, from the doctors or anything, that there’s proof that it’s the air pressure that went into my ear that caused the breakage; the hole is too big for it to be from anything else,” Hollingsworth said. “The only way you can get a perforated eardrum is from wearing earphones 24-7, [like] people who listen to their iPods; I don’t own any headphones and I’m not really around loud music ever.”
Hollingsworth declined to comment about her profession.
Bewley alleges that the altercation first began when she was spending time in her boyfriend’s Stearns West room with him and two friends. Bewley said she was on the computer when Hollingsworth and Florez walked out of Florez’s room and into the living room area.
“Sydney looked at me as I was sitting on the computer, I didn’t say anything to her, and she started screaming obscenities at me,” Bewley said.
Bewley claimed that she asked Hollingsworth twice, who she said was face-to-face with her, to stop yelling at her before Hollingsworth swung her right hand at her.
“I kind of backed away because I saw it coming and she hit the edge of my cheek, at which point my natural reflex was to swing back at her, and I slapped her back on the cheek,” Bewley said.
Both Bewley and Hollingsworth agreed for the most part on the aftermath of the altercation in which Florez stood between the two girls and separated them. Soon after Bewley and Fontanese left the room. Neither of the couples saw each other again for the rest of the evening.
While the case has not gone to court yet, a preliminary hearing for it will take place on March 5.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Mindy Rappoport at Mindy.rappoport@colorado.edu.
