Skip to content
Crime & Justice
Link copied to clipboard

Ex-Temple frat president faces a second sex-assault trial

For the second time in four months, the former president of a suspended Temple University fraternity was ordered Thursday to stand trial for a sexual assault.

Ari Goldstein, left, former president of Temple University's Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, leaves the Criminal Justice Center after a preliminary hearing alongside his attorney, Perry de Marco Sr.
Ari Goldstein, left, former president of Temple University's Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, leaves the Criminal Justice Center after a preliminary hearing alongside his attorney, Perry de Marco Sr.Read moreTOMMY ROWAN/Staff

For the second time in four months, the former president of a suspended Temple University fraternity was ordered Thursday to stand trial for an alleged sexual assault.

Ari Goldstein, 21, sat slumped in his chair and biting his fingernails as his accuser testified against him at a preliminary hearing. After an intense cross-examination of the woman by Goldstein's defense attorney, Judge Jacquelyn M. Frazier-Lyde ordered a trial on charges of rape, sexual assault, unlawful restraint, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. A charge of false imprisonment was dismissed.

» READ MORE: READ MORE: Ex-Temple frat president held for trial on sex-assault charges

The woman, a Temple junior at the time of the alleged assault in November 2017, testified Thursday that her encounter with Goldstein started with consensual sex in his bedroom at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house at 2000 N. Broad St. Goldstein became increasingly aggressive, she said.  She asked him to stop, she said, but he pushed her to continue.

The Inquirer and Daily News do not identify victims of alleged sex crimes without their permission.

"She told him to stop, and he didn't stop, and that's why we're here today," said Assistant District Attorney Lauren Stramm.

Goldstein's attorney, Perry de Marco Sr., countered that the two had had sex on several occasions before the alleged November incident. The woman agreed the two had had sex three or four times but said this was the first time Goldstein became aggressive.

After the hearing, de Marco described the allegations as part of "the 'MeToo' bandwagon."

» READ MORE: READ MORE: Ex-Temple frat president charged with rape in second alleged assault

Goldstein, of Wrightstown, Bucks County, also faces charges including attempted sexual assault stemming from a February incident in which a woman says he tried to force her into having oral sex. A trial date has not been set.

In April, Temple officials suspended Alpha Epsilon Pi after several women came forward saying they were sexually assaulted at the frat house.