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He had forgotten to take his dorm room key home with him, so, locked out of his single-occupancy unit, 105B, he walked out of Poteat Residence Hall and into the courtyard, where he saw two campus police officers headed in his direction. He walked toward them, hoping they could let him into his room with their master keys.
They told Caparelli they were looking for him. When asked why, Detective James Rae replied, "Facebook."
"At the time, I didn't think I was going to get in trouble for anything," Caparelli said. "I know what he's talking about. It's easy. I'm going to explain myself."
The officers questioned Caparelli but did not arrest him. In the search warrant affidavit, Rae notes that "Mr. Caparelli stated that he would never hurt anyone on campus or do anything against the school. He stated that the words he used . . . were that like music rapper writes. Words only an expression, and not something that is actually done."
According to the affidavit, Caparelli granted permission for police to search his room and bags, and he willingly surrendered his laptop. Told by a school administrator to leave campus, and Winston-Salem, until his campus judicial hearing, Caparelli went home the next day.
Rae referred an interview request to Kevin Cox, Wake Forest's director of media relations, who said the campus police and administration would have no comment on Caparelli.
A week after that ride back to Fairfax, Caparelli returned to Wake for his campus judicial hearing and gave his account of what he had written online.
"I wanted them to know that just because I was writing this, this is not the life that I live or who I am," Caparelli said.
Wake Forest suspended Caparelli for the spring semester.
He has since launched a new Facebook page, stripped of most personal effects, and said he is choosier about to whom he grants access.
'A Very Hard Lesson'
Caparelli said if he wants to return to Wake Forest, he will have to reapply and undergo psychological evaluations. He plans to submit to the testing regardless, so he will have a clean bill of mental health to show any interested school.
Cox wrote in an e-mail that Wake Forest's Committee on Academic Affairs -- six faculty members, two administrators and a student -- rules on requests for readmission. He added that he could not discuss the process in reference to Caparelli in particular.
