Local colleges bolstering security in wake of break-ins, indecent exposures

Local college officials say they’re working to shore up security as authorities accuse an Amherst County man of breaking into dormitories in a string of indecent exposure incidents in October.

Joel Michael Wooldridge, 31, of Monroe was indicted Monday by a Lynchburg grand jury on two felony counts of breaking and entering.

Lynchburg Police Detective Collin Byrne testified at a related hearing last week that Wooldridge admitted to breaking into Wright Hall at Randolph College on Oct. 7 and into McWane Hall at Lynchburg College on Oct. 19.

In the first incident, a female student testified, she woke up around 5:30 a.m. to find a man at the foot of her bed staring at her and touching himself. She couldn’t identify Wooldridge, she said, because she wasn’t wearing her glasses at the time.

In the second incident, a first-year female student testified, she was showering in a common bathroom on her hall when she saw a hand reach around the curtain. When she looked out, she said, she saw Wooldridge walking out of the room buttoning his pants.

Byrne testified Wooldridge admitted he had been standing on the other side of the curtain touching himself while the woman showered.

Randolph College Director of Safety and Security Kris Irwin said Wooldridge’s ability to defeat the dorm’s keycard and motion-detector system caught him off guard.

According to testimony at last week’s hearing, a motion detector would unlock the doors as a student approached from the inside.

Byrne testified Wooldridge threaded a stick between the double doors and wiggled it inside to trip the motion detector.

“We made adjustments in that same afternoon,” Irwin said. “It was minor, but it was enough of an adjustment to keep anything from being threaded between the doors.”

He said he suspects Wooldridge learned the trick as a heating and cooling contractor working on similar buildings.

Wooldridge is charged with peeping into a dwelling and obscene sexual display in Montgomery County after Virginia Tech police charged him in connection with an Aug. 27 incident at a dorm there. Officials there said he was working on a job there for Southern Air.

Officials at Randolph College met with students to remind them that everyone has a responsibility for security, Irwin said, noting that he relies on students, faculty and staff to report suspicious people and incidents.

He also reminded students to lock their doors and not to rely on “perimeter” security. The student testified she had not locked the door to her room before falling asleep the night before Wooldridge is accused of breaking into the building.

At Lynchburg College, Byrne testified, Wooldridge told police he broke into the building through a laundry room window.

College spokeswoman Shannon Brennan said Lynchburg College did not change any security policies.

“We took the opportunity to remind students how important it is to keep doors and windows secure, not allow strangers into residence halls, which require an ID for entry, and to report suspicious activity immediately,” Brennan wrote in an e-mail.

Wooldridge was convicted at the Nov. 30 hearing of four counts of indecent exposure and one count of trespass, all misdemeanors. He was sentenced to a three-year term, but immediately appealed his convictions.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette presented evidence in that hearing that Wooldridge exposed himself to female joggers running along Langhorne and Boonsboro roads and that he tried to force his way into a bathroom stall at Central Virginia Community College.

He is scheduled to be tried on all local charges in Lynchburg Circuit Court on Feb. 23. He remains custody at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail without bond.

He is scheduled for a hearing in Montgomery County on Jan. 20.