Ex-'U' Student Charged In 2 Sex Assaults
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A former student at the University of Minnesota has been charged with raping two women he met at college parties.
Daniel York Drill-Mellum, 22, was arrested on Christmas Eve and now faces five felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in connection with the alleged 2014 incidents.
According to the criminal complaints, one of the victims reported being assaulted by Drill-Mellum at a Halloween party at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house. The then 18-year-old victim says she was led into a laundry room by Drill-Mellum, where they began kissing. She said he started putting his hands up her shirt and, when she tried to stop him, he forced himself on her, saying "I know you want this."
The victim told investigators the more she struggled, the more aggressive he got.
A separate complaint alleges Drill-Mellum assaulted a 19-year-old woman a week later after meeting her at a party at an apartment complex on the 1000 block of University Avenue Southeast.
She told police she and he went over to his apartment across the street to get more alcohol. Once there, he offered her vodka and began kissing her. She said she wanted to go back to the party, but he persisted, the complaint says.
Eventually, she said she performed oral sex on him in hopes that he would let her go back across the street, but then he held her down on the bed and violently assaulted her, the complaint says. She was taken to the emergency room afterwards with multiple lacerations and bleeding.
Drill-Mellum was scheduled for an appearance in Hennepin District Court Monday afternoon. The Star Tribune reports his father, Richard Drill-Mellum, is a lecturer at the U's school of public health.
