Nearly two years after his initial arrest, Anu Campbell was sentenced for two cases of aggravated assault and sexual battery on Berry’s campus.
Allie Pritchett, Viking Fusion Executive Director
After pleading guilty to sexual battery, Anu Tafari Campbell, a former Berry College student, was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and probation for life on Friday.
Campbell pled guilty on Feb. 7 to two felony accounts of aggravated sexual battery and two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.
In Georgia, the punishment for aggravated sexual battery is “life imprisonment or a minimum of 25 years imprisonment followed by probation for life and mandatory sex offender registration,” according to FindLaw.com. Campbell’s defense attorney, Bernard Brody, appealed to Judge John E. Neidrach to suspend a portion of Georgia statutes’ sentencing based on Campbell’s dedication to recovery and good behavior.
“I don’t know that I can adequately express how sorry I am to all involved, to the victims and to the defendant and his family,” Neidrach said. “I will note, Mr. Campbell, that this sentence could have been exponentially worse.”
Campbell was sentenced in both cases to 10 years in prison and probation for life. He is required to report to his probation officer within 72 hours of his release from incarceration, and he is required to pay a $32 per month probation fee, according to Neidrach.
During Campbell’s final testimony, he expressed remorse for his actions to the victims.
“I’m deeply sorry,” Campbell said. “You are not my property. Your bodies are your own.”
Campbell, a freshman at the time, was arrested at Dana Hall on April 24, 2016, after an investigation with the Berry College Police Department. The two victims, who considered Campbell to be a friend, accused him of assaulting them while in the dorms at Berry College.
“I considered Anu a friend and trusted him only to have him turn around and misuse that trust to violate me in the most intimate way possible,” one of the women said in a statement.
“I think about it every day,” the other woman said in a statement to the court. “Two years ago, I would have never thought I would be sitting in a courtroom because of him.”