Tuesday, February 10, 1998 NO HAZING CHARGES IN VMI CASE By MATT CHITTUM ROANOKE TIMES  Prosecutor calls the law vague and says the school must initiate the procedures VMI suspended three seniors last week for the rest of this school year because of the whipping incident. The Rockbridge County commonwealth's attorney said he can't initiate criminal hazing charges against three Virginia Military Institute seniors who allegedly beat six freshmen with belts and a coat hanger, even though one of the victim's families has requested it. The three seniors were suspended Wednesday for the rest of this school year. A fourth senior was allowed to stay but is confined to barracks. Prosecutor Gordon Saunders said the state hazing law does not allow him to initiate hazing charges on his own. He said it's clear that hazing charges must originate with a determination by the college that an incident might constitute hazing. The law requires the college to report to the local commonwealth's attorney all incidents of hazing or other mistreatment "so as to cause bodily injury," but VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III determined there was no bodily injury in this case. Although former VMI freshman George Wade Jr. of Henrico County claimed the beatings left welts on his buttocks and legs, a college doctor found none when he examined the rats weeks after the beatings stopped. "I've told the family they can look at their civil remedies," Saunders said, "and the son has a right to go to a magistrate and get a warrant for assault and battery." George Wade Sr. said he has hired an attorney and plans to sue the cadets involved in the beatings, but not VMI. VMI spokesman Mike Strickler advised Saunders of the incident and the college's decision not to pursue it as hazing last week, the same day Wade Sr. called Saunders. Strickler said VMI is looking into the matter again, investigating a claim by Wade Jr. that the seniors told him to play down the beatings as "horseplay" when questioned by investigators. Wade Sr., a Richmond police detective, said VMI's investigation of the matter has been less than satisfactory. He believes the seniors got soft treatment in a case of VMI looking out for its own. "They investigated themselves," he said. "It seems like they would want it investigated by an outside agency. ... Do they think they're above state law?" Wade Jr. said the beatings began in September, just three weeks after the freshman class arrived at VMI to start the year. Wade Jr.'s senior "dyke," or big brother, and the other seniors called Wade Jr. and some other freshmen into their room and told them they were going to have to take some "licks." Both VMI and the Wade family have declined to name the cadets. The beatings continued at an average of three times a week for two months, Wade Jr. said. The seniors told him and the others they would have to accumulate 98 licks each, to honor the senior class of 1998. ``When they struck us, they would cringe and laugh,'' he said. ``And sometimes, they asked us to drop our sweat pants so they could see the marks.'' The beatings were especially difficult to fathom for Wade Jr. because they were coming from the one cadet in the barracks he was supposed to be able to go to for anything, his "dyke." The relationship between a rat and his big brother is a symbiotic one. The rats handle cleaning and laundry delivery for the seniors, and in return the seniors provide guidance. Wade Sr. said word of the beatings got out when the mother of his son's girlfriend saw the welts while visiting VMI with her daughter. The woman contacted VMI anonymously, prompting an investigation by a student disciplinary committee, which handed down a mild punishment. Wade Jr. said that just before the hearings in the case, the seniors involved told him to call the beatings "horseplay" and "funning around." Acting on further information, the VMI administration looked into the matter, prompting the suspensions last week. Wade Jr. told his parents of the beatings over Thanksgiving break, and chose not to return to VMI. Wade Sr. said he is amazed that VMI did not consider the beatings an act of hazing. Saunders, the commonwealth's attorney, said the law is vague, lacking definitions of "hazing" and "bodily harm." He said he has little experience with the 38-year-old statute. School officials also were hard pressed to remember a single time in the last 30 years they had pursued hazing charges against a cadet. But there have been several instances of cadets striking or injuring other cadets in the last few years, and all of them resulted in longer suspensions than in the most recent case. Besides two instances this year that resulted in two-semester suspensions, a 1996 incident that resulted in the accidental dislocation of a freshman's shoulder ended in the suspension of five other freshmen for two semesters, and a sixth for three semesters.