iradiophilly | News - Villanova Player Charged w/ Sex Assault; Suburbs County Vaccine Supply; Philly Fighting COVID Report

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Villanova Player Charged w/ Sex Assault; Suburbs County Vaccine Supply; Philly Fighting COVID Report

by: iradioal - Philadelphia, PA
started: 03/09/21 3:07 pm | updated: 03/09/21 3:07 pm

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced on Tuesday, 3/9, that a Villanova University football player has been arrested and charged with sexual assault for an attack that happened on campus in September 2019. 19-year-old Iyanu Elijah Solomon of Reisterstown, MD, is charged with attempted sexual assault, a felony, as well as with misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, simple assault, and unlawful restraint. The attack allegedly occurred at the beginning of Solomon and the victim's freshman year in his dorm room.

"This is a very disturbing case where a football player, on campus, tried to force another student into having oral sex with him," Stollsteimer said. It wasn't until the victim began to pray the "Our Father" aloud that he let her go. "She had to pray to our lord that she was going to be safe. He did attempt to commit a sexual assault against her. That's wrong, it's illegal, we're going to try and hold him accountable. That's why we're bringing these charges today," Stollsteimer said.

Two weeks later, she reported it to her resident assistant but did not want to file a police report. In August 2020, at the behest of the university's Title IX coordinator, the victim gave a statement to Villanova University police, but she declined to press charges again. In February 2021, she changed her mind and decided to go ahead with criminal charges after he continued to harass her. This incident is not associated with reports of sexual assault on campus made last week. Solomon remains in jail in lieu of 10% of $250,000 bail. He has been indefinitely suspended from the football program.

Officials in Philadelphia's four 'collar counties' are "disappointed and frustrated" in the state Health Department response concerning the distribution of vaccines. Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties say that they have not been getting their fair share of supply compared with other counties in the state. These four counties account for a population of around 2.55 million or 20% of the state population. On average, they have being receiving 173 doses per 1000 people. That would put them collectively 44th out of 67 counties. Conversely, Montour County has received doses equal to 244% of their population. The counties and the health department got on a call on Monday hoping to make some sense of it, but the meeting proved ineffective.

The four counties released a statement, "This afternoon's meeting with the PA Department of Health was both disappointing and frustrating. There remains a lack of transparency on the total doses that have come to our counties from every source. Therefore, we have no way to assess how the data presented to us today was calculated, and how those calculations have been used to determine the number of doses that have been allocated to our four counties. Additionally, we were not given any indication of the plan to make up acknowledged shortfalls to certain counties going forward."

The State Department of Health released a statement, "What's most important to note is the focus should be on the number of people receiving vaccinations - not on where vaccine is shipped to in the state. If the goal of the process is to get residents vaccinated, then the percentage of county residents who have received at least one dose is more representative of how well a county is doing in this process. The Department of Health has been transparent about where vaccine allocations are going. Now some have used that data, which does not provide the full story, to create a skewed picture. For example, the weekly spreadsheets we post online do not account for large health systems that have vaccine shipped to one location and then redistribute it to facilities in surrounding counties, making their home counties appear overallocated...The picture can also be skewed if you don't take into account the fact that in the early weeks when vaccine was first available, some factors created outsized impacts on allocations throughout the state."

Philadelphia Inspector General Alexander DeSantis released a 16-page report Monday, 3/8, on the city's controversial relationship with Philly Fighting Covid, Inc. The entity was started by students from Drexel last spring and was led by 22-year-old graduate student Andrei Doroshin. They started by 3-D printing face shields, then moved into COVID testing, and finally pivoted to delivering vaccines in December. The group was selected to run a vaccination clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for non-associated heath care workers, despite several red flags from the organization and CEO Doroshin. It is noted that PFC did in fact deliver close to 7,000 vaccines at the clinic. The relationship was terminated after the city learned that the group was moving to a for-profit status and that Doroshin had taken vaccine doses home for himself. "There was virtually no vetting," DeSantis said. "That is very problematic. And I believe that is primarily due to the fact that they proceeded without a contract."

"I believe the findings of the Inspector General accurately reflect the mistakes that were made. And I fully accept the recommendations of the report: more extensive training for staff on contracting, particularly in emergencies, and improved transparency about vaccination progress for the public," said Mayor Kenney in a statement on Monday.

"I was pleased to learn that they did not identify any illegal or unethical actions by Department of Health employees. That said, it is my responsibility that the Health Department doesn't make bad decisions-like working with PFC-no matter how quickly we are trying to respond to this epidemic," said Farley. "The Philadelphia Department of Health, acting in a hurry, made a bad decision to work with Philly Fighting COVID for vaccination and while the context of the emergency is important, it shouldn't have happened."

SEE FULL REPORT: Public Report â€“ Philly Fighting Covid, Inc.