Oklahoma State Student Charged With Sexual Battery Appears In Court

Affidavits filed in the case say two young men claim Cochran sexually battered them while they were asleep.<br />

Thursday, December 13th 2012, 11:08 am

By: News On 6

Oklahoma State Student Charged With Sexual Battery Appears In Court

An Oklahoma State University student appeared before a Payne County judge Thursday afternoon following his arrest Wednesday evening on sexual battery charges.

Nathan Cochran, 22, turned himself in to Stillwater police shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

During Thursday's court arraignment, a judge ordered Cochran back for a Dec. 19 bond hearing. He remains jailed on a $100,000 bond.

Cochran is charged with three counts of sexual battery for incidents that took place in November 2011 and August 2012, according to court documents.

The university has said there were as many as five alleged victims.

Cochran was a member of the FarmHouse fraternity at OSU. He was also elected Secretary of the Inter fraternity Council in 2012, according to a cached version of the IFC's website.

The reported assaults did not take place in the fraternity house, according to court documents.

Affidavits filed in the case say two young men claim Cochran sexually battered them while they were asleep.

After allegations of sexual assault were made to OSU officials, they held a student conduct hearing and found Cochran responsible for violating the student conduct code, by sexual misconduct.

Cochran was suspended from the university for three years, effective Friday, and was ordered not to contact the alleged victims.

OSU President Burns Hargis announced on Thursday that he has called for a comprehensive investigation into the way the school handled recent sexual battery allegations.

Hargis has asked the OSU/A&M Board of Regents to expand a current task force which is reviewing policies, practices and procedures related to sexual misconduct, a news release said.

The university told police about potential sex crimes 18 days after it first was made aware of them.

School officials say federal privacy laws prohibited them from telling investigators.

Male on male sexual attacks are the least reported of all sex crimes, according to Domestic Violence Intervention Services in Tulsa.

Last year, 31 men were treated at DVIS as victims of a sex crime, while 401 women were treated in that same time.

A Tulsa therapist said men are less likely to tell anyone about a sexual battery incident out of fear of being perceived as less masculine.

"And because of that message that it has to do with attraction, men don't want to talk about that again," therapist Andre Campbell said. "But the actual thing about sexual assault is it has to do with power, control, and dominance."