BLACKSBURG -- A prank has turned into felony charges for a group of University of Virginia students now accused of ripping a prominently displayed, 5-foot-tall Hokie Bird statue from its pedestal in March.

All of the fiberglass "Farmer Hokie" except for its feet disappeared from its spot in front of the Blacksburg Municipal Building the weekend of March 24.

The bird was returned -- by whom, it's unclear -- about a week later.

Over the past few days, nine UVa students were charged with felony destruction of property in the incident. The men made arrangements to appear at the Blacksburg Police Department to be charged, according to Capt. Bruce Bradbery.

They are:

• Phillip Sukys, 20, of Alexandria
• Jesse Germanow, 18, of Rochester, N.Y.
• Alfred Lucia, 19, of Northport, N.Y.
• Russell Gartman, 19, of Chesapeake
• Brian Grochal, 18, of Maryland
• Johan Roos, 19, of Pennsylvania
• Jonathan Foster, 19, of New Jersey
• Ariel Poliner, 20, of Washington, D.C., and
• Andrew Pearson, 18, of Melrose, Mass.

On arrest warrants, the addresses for Sukys, Germanow, Gartman, Grochal, Roos and Foster are listed as UVa residence halls.

Four of the men were charged at the police department Monday; the other five were charged there Wednesday.

Carol Wood, UVa's assistant vice president for public affairs, has confirmed that the men were fraternity pledges, but she did not disclose the fraternity's name.

"Despite what they did and despite what they're charged with, they are very exceptional young men," said Radford attorney Jimmy Turk, who has been hired to represent all nine students.

Turk said he's been talking with the men and their parents -- at least five of whom are attorneys -- for the past month and all are taking the charges very seriously.

"They all come from very, very good families," he said.

A tip about their identities was e-mailed to the Blacksburg Partnership, the bird's owner, shortly after the March incident occurred. The partnership's executive director, Diane Akers, said the person who sent the tip will receive a $1,000 reward if it leads to a conviction.

Wood said the students "were very quick" to get in touch with the partnership after the incident, writing a letter of apology and offering to pay for the bird.

Akers said the UVa students have already paid the partnership $11,000 -- $10,000 for the statue and $1,000 for the reward.

The differently decorated statues -- 75 were created as part of a fundraiser -- are valued at $7,500 each but some have sold for more than that at auction.

"It was one of our best birds," Akers said, "and we were looking at what it would have gone for at auction."

Around the time the bird went missing, the partnership had found a potential buyer for it, she said. She wouldn't name the potential buyer but said that person is still interested.

Akers said she hasn't seen Farmer Hokie and doesn't know if it can be repaired. All the other damaged statues have been fixed, though, and Gwynn Hamilton, the Giles County artist who painted Farmer Hokie, has offered to repaint it, she said.

For now, the statue is at the Blacksburg Police Department.

"We hope that now that we've made arrests, we can get it back to its rightful owner," Bradbery said.

It's unclear what penalties, if any, the men who were charged this week could face at UVa.

Wood said the school has two confidential student-run systems, the Honor System and the Judiciary Committee, that could be called on to handle the case.

UVa students sign a pledge to abide by the school's honor system. If convicted of lying, cheating or stealing, they are expelled.

The judiciary committee oversees the school's standards of conduct and can hand down sanctions from a verbal admonition to suspension.

As of now, while charged with destruction of property, the UVa students aren't charged with stealing the statue.

Two Virginia Tech students were charged with felony destruction of property and grand larceny after another statue, called "Motion Technology for Sea, Land, Air and Space," disappeared from its spot in front of Moog Technology on North Main Street in December.

Matthew Alan Hanson, 21, of Maryland pleaded guilty to the charges in Montgomery County Circuit Court a week ago.

He was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and placed on probation. Separately, the school's judicial board suspended him for a semester and sentenced him to an additional 100 hours of service.

The charges against the second Tech student, Michael Scott Russell, 20, also of Maryland, haven't yet gone to court. The case has been postponed until July.