The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

June 6, 2009

UPDATE: Grove City pair pay fines for tryst in public

By Matt Snyder

GROVE CITY — A Grove City College student told police he went to a Broad Street bar to celebrate his girlfriend�s 21st birthday, but the two would end their evening facing charges of open lewdness.

David Scott Gratner, 22, said things got a little hot and heavy on the way back to campus, where he and Martha J. Hanley, 21, planned to have sex, but the pair didn�t quite make it.

The two students were chased by police after they were caught having sex on someone�s car hood in the Grace Street Parking lot.

On Wednesday, charges of open lewdness were withdrawn against Gratner and Ms. Hanley. Instead, charges of disorderly conduct were moved to citations and they pleaded guilty.

They paid $424 fines before Senior Judge David Fish, Pine Township, for the shenanigans committed in the early morning hours of May 2.

The case against Ms. Hanley and Gratner came on the same week Grove City College student John Gechter was suspended for his off-campus career as an actor in gay pornography. He has since withdrawn, and may reapply to the college to finish his appeals process.

The college�s communications director, Amy Clingensmith, had said before that the students would meet with the president of student life and learning and could be punished by the college with temporary suspension, indefinite suspension, or expulsion.

However, when asked Friday about the students and how the college dealt with them, Ms. Clingensmith said, �no comment.�

Police said they drove past the Grace Street Parking lot at about 3 a.m. and saw the pair on the car hood, apparently having sex. They turned around, but the students had split. One policeman went on foot and the other patrolled in his car.

They saw the pair behind the Grove City College field house, and later got a call from college security saying Ms. Hanley had just scanned into Harker Hall.

Police arrived at Harker Hall and saw Gratner in a chair in the Physical Learning Center. He saw one policeman approach and ran again.

They chased him through the building and out the back, into a parking lot, and he eventually rounded the building, back to where other police were still waiting.

Once in custody, police found women�s underwear in Gratner�s front pocket and he admitted it was Ms. Hanley�s.

Ms. Hanley and Gratner said they ran because they were scared or freaked out.

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