ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Two female Citadel cadets had nail polish remover poured on them and their clothes set afire not once but three times in hazing incidents in the last two months, their attorneys said Tuesday.
One woman, Jeanie Mentavlos, also was ordered to drop her pants so male cadets could remove a concealed tape recorder. She was permitted to go behind a desk to do it, they said.
Mentavlos was using the recorder because she and Kim Messer ``knew no one would believe them as to the fact the line had been crossed'' by male cadets at the formerly all-male state military school, said Mentavlos' attorney, Tim Kulp.
Other new hazing allegations made Tuesday involve male cadets entering the women's rooms in the middle of the night, singing sexually explicit songs and forcing alcoholic beverages on them in the dorms.
The FBI, Justice Department and State Law Enforcement Division are investigating. A final report is not expected until next month, Solicitor David Schwacke said.
College spokesman Terry Leedom declined comment Tuesday. ``All that should come out in the investigation,'' he said.
Two cadets have been suspended and five others relieved of their commands in response to the hazing allegations, first made last week.
The women told cadet officers about the harassment, but the complaints were ignored, attorney Paul Gibson said. Mentavlos' brother Michael, a senior, and two other senior cadets then told school officials, he said.
The hazing began in mid-October and escalated after Thanksgiving, Gibson said.
Mid-October is when any upperclassman can begin ordering freshmen around - admonishing them on their uniform or asking questions about Citadel rules, for example. Prior to that, only a limited number of upperclassmen, called the cadre, may make corrections.
Mentavlos and Messer are taking final exams but not participating in military activities as authorities investigate the claims. The women, concerned for their safety in the barracks, are staying off campus and wearing civilian clothes this week.
The other two women cadets, Nancy Mace and Petra Lovetinska, a Czech national, have remained with their companies and have not made any hazing allegations.
The college, in response to the allegations, installed alarm buttons Monday in the women's rooms. The buttons sound an alarm at a guard station elsewhere in the barracks.
Kulp said neither Mentavlos nor Messer has decided whether she will return to the corps next month. If they do, he said, additional security, such as assigning U.S. marshals to campus or installing a video camera in front of their rooms, would be needed.
To avoid singling them out from the rest of the corps, a plan developed last summer for accommodating the women did not include video cameras or alarms in their rooms.
Their attorneys did agree, however, to latches on the women's doors. There are no latches on the doors of male cadets.
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