Brianna Rae Brochu, the “roommate from hell” and expelled University of Hartford student who was arrested after admitting she contaminated her Black roommate’s belongings with bodily fluids, may avoid criminal charges altogether.
On Monday, the Superior Court in Hartford granted Brochu’s request for accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation that would allow Brochu to have the charges against her dismissed after two years if she completes 200 hours of community service and stays out of trouble, the Hartford Courant reported.
At Brochu’s trial, Rowe told Judge Omar Williams that she didn’t oppose Brochu’s accelerated rehabilitation request. As a result of her former roommate’s actions, Rowe said she was traumatized by the “acts of hate,” which she said have given her nightmares, delayed her educational goals, and prohibited her from trusting others.
In October, West Hartford police arrested and charged Brochu with breach of peace and criminal mischief after she posted on Instagram that she tampered with her roommate Chennel “Jazzy” Rowe’s possessions in order to get her to move out. Brochu had written that she rubbed period blood on Rowe’s backpack, spit in her coconut oil, put moldy clam dip in her lotions, and put her toothbrush in “places where the sun doesn’t shine.” Finishing off her incriminating post by calling Rowe “Jamaican Barbie,” Brochu’s actions earned her a place on the Daily Dot’s list of worst millennials of 2017.
Rowe, in a Facebook Live video, said she had fallen ill multiple times throughout the semester, with campus doctors not knowing what was the cause of her sickness. While Rowe had gone to administrators upon seeing Brochu’s post, she said neither the school nor local police took her claims seriously until she shared her complaint online.
While Brochu said she made up most of the claims in the Instagram posts in an attempt to “‘appear funny,'” she admitted to licking and transferring period blood onto Rowe’s possessions. At the time, West Hartford police requested that Brochu, who is white, also be charged with intimidation based on bigotry or bias and a hate crime; Brochu’s lawyer, however, claimed her client’s actions were not racially-motivated. Brochu originally said she acted in retaliation for Rowe making fun of her snoring on Snapchat. As a result of her actions, the university expelled Brochu.
Brochu’s lawyer, Thomas Stevens, apologized on her behalf, saying his client wanted to apologize sooner, but that he directed her to hold off out of concern that Rowe would sue. Brochu is not allowed to contact Rowe and must submit to a mental health evaluation.
“By giving her this second chance, I hope she will change her ways and finds love for all mankind no matter what race,” Rowe said of her former roommate’s accelerated rehabilitation.
H/T the Root