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Barclay cleared on rape charges
20-year-old charged with making false rape claim was former Messiah College student
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Messiah College has confirmed that the man charged Thursday with making a false rape accusation against former Cumberland County Commissioner Bruce Barclay was a former student at the college.
“We can confirm that William McCurdy was a student at Messiah College,” said Beth Lorow, assistant director of public relations. “Our records show that he enrolled in the fall 2006 semester.”
William Marshall McCurdy, 20, of Berks County, was an arts management major and completed three semesters before voluntarily withdrawing at the end of the fall 2007 semester, Lorow said. He is a 2006 graduate from Governor Mifflin High School and an Eagle Scout, according to the Reading Eagle newspaper.
“Messiah College has not been contacted by authorities or involved with this investigation at this point,” Lorow said. Speaking about 9:30 a.m. Friday, Lorow said she had not yet heard any reaction from the campus to the news.
Barclay’s attorney said the damage from the accusation remains.
“Bruce Barclay can’t get his reputation back,” Gover said. “The actions of this man have hurt Bruce Barclay beyond anybody’s possible comprehension.”
The charges against McCurdy mean “the specific rape allegation that we were investigating was not a rape but was consensual sex,” said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
However, Harley said, the Barclay investigation continues, and anyone who “feels they may have been a victim” of illegal acts inside Barclay’s home is asked to call the state police hotline at 1-866-898-8477.
Corbett announced Thursday afternoon via a faxed press release that McCurdy, of the 1100 block of Alleghenyville Road, Mohnton, was charged with making false reports to law enforcement authorities and unsworn falsifications to authorities. The former charge is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine, he said, and the latter is a third-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Report
According to court records, early on March 31 McCurdy told police he had been staying at Barclay’s home since January. On March 30, McCurdy said, he and Barclay went out to dinner together, returned about 9 p.m. and spent an hour to an hour-and-a-half sitting in Barclay’s hot tub engaging in casual conversation.
After leaving the hot tub, McCurdy said, they were passing through Barclay’s bedroom when Barclay grabbed him from behind, threw him on the bed face down, held him down and forcibly raped him.
McCurdy yelled for help, he said, but no one heard him because his face was in a pillow. Afterward, McCurdy said, Barclay left the room and he gathered his belongings quickly and left the home about 11:30 p.m.
After meeting and speaking with a female friend at a local diner, McCurdy said, he went to the Upper Allen Police Department, which contacted state police at Carlisle.
Investigators then obtained a sealed search warrant for Barclay’s house. Two days later the allegation became public and the 48-year-old Republican commissioner resigned.
Rebuttal
McCurdy gave police both a verbal and a written statement, according to the affidavit, but during an interview on Monday, he admitted that he was not raped and that he had had consensual sexual intercourse with Barclay during that evening.
McCurdy then gave another written statement regarding what had really occurred, the documents said.
Prior to McCurdy’s confession, Trooper Bryan Henneman reviewed seized video surveillance footage from the night in question and observed both McCurdy and Barclay in the hot tub area together having what appeared to be consensual sexual intercourse, he wrote.
Shortly after the two left the pool area, Henneman wrote, a hidden camera located in Barclay’s bedroom showed McCurdy entering the room and taking off the towel wrapped around him.
McCurdy then got on Barclay’s bed “of his own free will and accord” and waited for Barclay to enter the bedroom, Henneman wrote. Barclay then turned off the light in the room, Henneman wrote, and he was unable to see any more footage until the lights were turned back on, at which point “it appeared that McCurdy was not in distress and acted casually.”
Following his confession, McCurdy was arraigned Thursday before Magisterial District Judge Margaret Brea, who is substituting for Mechanicsburg Magisterial District Judge Mark W. Martin. He was lodged in Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail, Corbett said.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 14 before Brea at Martin’s office in Mechanicsburg, Corbett said.
Double-edged sword
Corbett’s announcement supported what Gover has been saying since the case broke: That he did not believe a rape charge would ever be filed against Barclay ” who has not commented or appeared publicly since the allegation was made.
Noting that “it was never a rape charge,” Gover said McCurdy’s accusation “clearly wasn’t supported, as I said earlier.”
The attorney told the Palm Beach Post in a story published today that he believes McCurdy’s allegation was “a shakedown.”
“Barclay has a little bit of money and has the ability to write a check.” Gover told the newspaper.
Barclay owns a second home in an exclusive community on Florida’s Intracoastal Canal. McCurdy told police Barclay had flown him there twice since January and had also taken along a male prostitute on the second trip.
Although Barclay, as a prominent person, did things he probably shouldn’t have done, Gover said, the tapes “were a double-edged sword.”
“At least he won’t face a rape prosecution,” Gover said.
However, he admitted that Barclay may face other prosecution. Police say they are investigating invasion or privacy and prostitution charges against Barclay.
Gover had no comment on the nature of the relationship between Barclay and the two men police said were living at his house.
