ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON THE ROANOKE TIMES
The Roanoke College students aren't off the hook, however. Some of them must perform community service for trespassing.
Hazing charges against six Roanoke College students and four former students were dropped Thursday because no one was injured during a ritual that police say involved holding four blindfolded men face down in a shallow creek.
Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart said the law specifies that a person must have suffered personal injury before an act can be considered hazing.
"There was no injury," Burkart said. "As far as I'm concerned, it was a waste of taxpayers' time and money to pursue it any further."
After a disturbance complaint near Carvins Cove more than two weeks ago, police found 18 men standing around four blindfolded men who were face down in 4 to 6 inches of creek water.
Some of them were holding the blindfolded men down, police said. Others stood on the bank, yelling and shining flashlights.
The men told police they were members of Campus Inter-Action, an off-campus social group that is not sponsored by the college.
They told police the activities were a "bonding experience and that they were in a period of trust building," said Roanoke County police Lt. Gary Roche.
Thirteen of them were charged with trespassing, four were charged with being drunk in public and 10 were charged with hazing.
The trespassing and drunk-in-public charges were legitimate, Burkart said. But because hazing is a rare offense in Roanoke County, he said, a magistrate may have misunderstood exactly what constitutes hazing.
"I had to pull out the statute myself," Burkart said.
"I think the general public would assume because they're going through this [ritual] ... that's automatically hazing."
Burkart said the hazing charges were the first filed in Roanoke County of which he was aware.
Thursday in the county General District Court, those charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, pleaded no contest. Judge George Harris took the cases under advisement and ordered each of the defendants to perform 40 hours of community service.
The disposition of the four drunk-in-public charges was unclear late Thursday.
Roanoke College is still conducting its own investigation to determine whether the 14 students violated the student conduct code, said college spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux.
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