A cinder block smashed through the ground floor window of a townhouse owned by Tom Schneidermann and Julia Falconer, the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Goergetown University just off campus on the 3600 block of O Street.

According to Schneidermann the cinder block shattered the window around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday.

The Metropolitan Police Department and Department of Public Safety are investigating the vandalism. Neighbors indicated they believe anger over the lawsuit motivated someone to destroy the window.

The couple filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court in late September against the university and University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., alleging the university did not control noise levels on and off campus causing them physical and mental distress. Schneidermann and Falconer seek $100,000 in compensatory and punitive damages as well as numerous injunctions that would effectively close Healy and Copley lawns as public venues. The couple lives just off campus across from the Alumni Square apartment complex and surrounded by university-owned townhouses.

“I heard a noise and I thought it was from somewhere outside,” he said in a telephone interview last night.

He dismissed the sound as the normal weekend noise and returned to sleep.

“My wife found [the broken window] in the morning,” Schneidermann said.

The couple then called the MPD and DPS who began an investigation.

Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Life Bethany arlowe penned a letter to Schneidermann’s student neighbors urging them to cooperate with all of the investigations. The letter also entreats those neighbors to comply with all district laws and university policy regarding noise and disruptive behavior.

Student neighbors immediately surrounding Schneidermann’s house did not report any unusual noise or see any unusual activity before or after the window was broken. As of yet no suspects have been apprehended.