A former Valparaiso University student charged with 10 felony and misdemeanor counts involving seven alleged victims, including attempted rape and sexual battery, will have the charges divvied up into two cases, a Porter Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Jaylen King, 21, of Zion, Illinois, is charged with attempted rape, three counts of residential entry, one count of sexual battery and one count of confinement, all felonies; and three counts of voyeurism and one count of battery, all misdemeanors, according to court documents. The allegations occurred in October and November of 2018 and January of 2019.

He has pleaded not guilty and is out on bond.

Merrillville defense attorney Mark Chargualaf argued in court documents that the charges should be severed “based on the number of counts charged, the complexity,” that it would be difficult to distinguish the evidence for each offense, and because trying the cases together violated King’s write to due process.

He had requested that the charges be broken into four separate cases, three involving the residential entry and voyeurism counts, which involved six women living in three university dorm rooms, and a fourth case on the remaining charges.

Deputy Prosecutor Harry Peterson, citing other cases where defendants faced charges from multiple criminal acts, said the commonality between all the alleged acts that they involved VU women living in VU dorms and King did so “to fulfill sexual desires.”

“These are big stakes. These are a lot of charges against Mr. King,” Judge Mary DeBoer said. “I want to do it the right way.”

She decided to keep together the allegations involving residential entry and voyeurism and separate into a separate case the allegations from January 2019.

DeBoer set a status hearing for 9 a.m. April 20 in her courtroom.

The most serious charges involve allegations from January 2019, when King allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in his dorm room in Alumni Hall who had gone there to braid his hair, according to charging documents, demanding sex from the woman. He was charged in that instance with attempted rape, sexual battery and confinement, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of battery.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.