GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Prosecutors on Friday formally charged an ex-University of Florida resident assistant accused of raping a young woman in a dormitory on campus over the summer.
Parker Aeon Siegel, 19, of Boca Raton, Florida, was charged with felony sexual battery of a person who was older than 12 and younger than 18. He previously entered a plea in the case of not guilty. Court records said the woman in the case was 17.
Siegel’s defense lawyer and uncle, Spencer Bryant Siegel of Boca Raton, told WUFT “Parker has pleaded not guilty, and he and his team will be vigorously defending against these allegations which we believe to be false. Nothing further.”
Reached by phone, Parker Siegel said he would return a reporter’s call but did not.
The incident occurred the afternoon of July 8 – during the summer semester – in the university’s Mallory Hall dormitory, according to police records.
University of Florida police said Siegel pinned his accuser on the bed in his dorm room and raped her as his accuser repeatedly said, “No,” and “I have to go.”
Parker was released from the county jail the day after he was arrested on a $100,000 bond.
The same day he was arrested, the university banned Siegel from all university property in Alachua County for three years, according to university police records. He was not enrolled as a student for the fall semester, according to registrar records. He had previously been enrolled as a computer science major in the College of Engineering.
Siegel had not yet been re-arrested in Alachua or Palm Beach counties, according to jail records.
The criminal charge filed by prosecutors accuses Siegel of sexual battery – defined under Florida law as oral, anal or vaginal penetration without consent.
Siegel’s lawyer urged the judge in July to dismiss the case, saying the accusations were “so vague, indistinct and indefinite as to hinder or embarrass” the former student. The lawyer also said the police report failed to include “essential and ultimate facts.” The judge has not ruled on the lawyer’s request.
The lawyer also asked the judge to order the university to keep copies of any audio or video recordings from cameras inside or outside the dorm between noon and 6 p.m. the day of the incident.
The case involving Siegel was among at least 14 rapes reported to the University of Florida so far this year, including nine reported to have occurred on campus or in campus housing, according to the latest campus crime figures. UF has about 60,000 students.
Last year, 19 rapes and sexual battery cases were reported to UF, the most since at least 2016, according to UF’s historical data. Around the same time, UF removed nearly eight years’ worth of crime data online without public notification, leaving only limited details about crimes that occurred on or near campus during the past 60 days. There has been one reported rape in the last 60 days, according to the school's official crime log.
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