EAST LANSING, MI -- A 19-year-old Jewish Michigan State University student who alleged he was assaulted last month because of his religion was punched in the mouth after repeatedly harassing and inappropriately touching women at an East Lansing house party, according to a police report.

The report, obtained by MLive Media Group from the East Lansing Police Department by way of a Freedom of Information Act request, details the accounts of more than 50 witnesses, all of whom had attended the party in the 500 block of Spartan Avenue during the early morning hours of Aug. 26.

Not one of them recalled any Nazi- or Ku Klux Klan-related statements made by anyone in attendance. Several witnesses recounted Tennen harassing multiple women at the party. He made many passes at one particular woman, according to the report, who asked her friend, an 18-year-old Farmington Hills man, to intervene. The man was originally developed as a suspect in Tennen's assault by East Lansing police.

The man, among others, warned Tennen several times to stop bothering his friend and other women at the party. Then, his friend was sitting outside, sick from alcohol consumption, when Tennen approached her again.

Tennen sat down next to the woman, put his arm around her and rubbed her thigh, according to the report. He began moving his hand closer to the woman's crotch and pressed his arm against her breasts, preventing her from getting up.

The woman eventually wrested free and told her friend what had happened. A short time later, the 18-year-old man from Farmington Hills punched Tennen once in the mouth, according to the report.

The woman told police in a written statement Tennen harassed her multiple times throughout the evening, asking her to kiss him and come back with him to his apartment. She rebuffed him each time, informing him she had a boyfriend and that she wanted him to leave her alone.

"Zach made me feel extremely uncomfortable and scared," the woman writes in her statement to police.

Multiple witnesses in the police report said Tennen was intoxicated at the party, and one told police Tennen said he was high.

Tennen told police in interviews and a statement two men he met at the party assaulted him. He described the pair as Chaldeans, who he said asked him if he was Jewish.

"Tennen responded, 'Yes I am Jewish.' At this time he stated the two suspects repeatedly made as he described 'Nazi/Hitler' gestures toward him and told Tennen they were part of the KKK," East Lansing police Officer Jeffrey Walsh writes in the report. "...the suspects told him, 'We're going to hurt you.'"

Tennen told police the men punched him in the face multiple times, knocking him unconscious. He said when he came to, several people at the party helped him up and told him he didn't need medical attention.

Tennen's jaw was fractured, requiring surgery. He alleged his assailants stapled his lower gums, directly below his front teeth, but multiple witnesses in the police report said the metal found in his mouth appeared to be a sort of wire like that used for braces.

East Lansing police interviewed Tennen along with his parents at their home on Aug. 28. Tennen was recovering from surgery, making it difficult for him to answer questions. His father, Bruce Tennen, told police his son has Asperger's syndrome, causing him to "sometimes get locked in on an idea that will take him time to think through and sort out," according to the report.

Many witnesses from the party told police Tennen seemed "odd." A friend of Tennen who has known him for more than 10 years told police, "Tennen is a little slow and a little odd" and that he was "not sure what Tennen said is all true," according to the report.

Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III closed the case Thursday without authorizing charges. In a letter from their attorney, the Tennens asked for the matter's closure.

Follow Brandon Howell on Twitter: @BHowellMLive. Email him at

or call him at

517-318-1615.

Click here

to subscribe to MLive Lansing's newsletter.