Sunday, May 3, 1998 HONOR COURT 'DRUMS OUT' 6 CADETS FIRE DAMAGES BARRACKS AFTER VERDICT By MATT CHITTUM and LAURENCE HAMMACK ROANOKE TIMES The cadets' attorneys say they plan to ask a federal judge for a temporary restraining order, which would stay the expulsions.   Six Virginia Military Institute cadets involved in an unauthorized disciplinary system were convicted by the school's Honor Court late Friday of lying about their involvement. Three lawyers involved in the case, who spoke upon condition of anonymity, confirmed that a student jury found all six cadets guilty about 11:30 p.m. Friday following two days of highly secret proceedings. Under the VMI honor code, there is only one penalty for lying, cheating or stealing - immediate expulsion, followed by an early morning "drum-out" ceremony, during which the names and crimes of the guilty are announced to the other cadets. One lawyer said the cadets were drummed out shortly after the verdict. Several hours after the verdict, about 3 a.m. Saturday, a fire broke out in an unoccupied room of the VMI barracks. No one was injured in the fire, which was first noticed by cadets who were studying nearby for exams. They used fire extinguishers to douse the blaze, which caused moderate damage, and it was out by the time the Lexington Fire Department arrived. Col. Mike Strickler, spokesman for VMI, said Saturday that he could not rule out the possibility that the fire, which burned mattresses and a wooden locker, was related to the Honor Court verdict. "I guess that's to be determined," Strickler said. "I wouldn't rule out anything at this point." The Virginia State Police were called in to investigate the fire. Strickler said the basement room belonged to three seniors and that damage from the fire had made it unliveable. He declined to say whether they were the same three seniors involved in the Honor Court trial. The Honor Court trial of the three freshmen and their senior "dykes," or mentors, began Wednesday morning with a defense motion to suppress their statements, which they all claim were coerced. The three seniors were accused of lying about striking the freshmen with belts for infractions such as breaking barracks rules or getting bad grades. The freshmen, in turn, were charged with falsely denying the beatings to protect their mentors. The case has received wide media coverage because the cadets' attorneys went public with their story. They said concerns for the "draconian" manner in which the investigation was conducted outweighed concerns for the system's confidentiality. All six cadets filed motions in federal court to halt the trials. At an earlier hearing, U.S. District Judge James Turk acknowledged that the cadets had raised "grave questions of constitutional magnitude," but he wasn't sure whether he had jurisdiction to rule in an Honor Court matter. He persuaded VMI to voluntarily postpone the trial of the cadets, originally set for April 8, so the lawyers could argue their case to the 4th U.S. District Court of Appeals. The appeals court denied their motions to further delay the trial and to expedite their appeal. Now the cadets' attorneys say they plan to go back to Turk and request a temporary restraining order, which would stay the expulsions and possibly allow the students back on campus in time to complete the year's courses. The three seniors involved would have begun their final exams Monday, in preparation for their graduation May 16. One attorney said Turk was notified Saturday of plans to file a motion for a temporary restraining order and that he indicated he wanted to hear the matter as soon as possible. A hearing has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday. "We think that's a good sign," the attorney said. By going to Turk earlier, the attorneys had hoped to buy time to argue that the cadets' constitutional rights were violated by the manner in which the investigation of the alleged hazing was carried out. Cadet investigators originally were looking into whether the three seniors - Phantamith Prompol and Donald Evans of Alexandria and Jason Roderiques of North Dartmouth, Mass. - had operated a "whacking system" in which the rats assigned to them for mentoring received blows with a belt for such offenses as bad grades or spilling drinks in the seniors' barracks room. The freshmen are Brandon Michael Crane of Evansville, Ind.; Arnold Jesse Gore of Chesterfield; and Terence Milton Redmond of Hockessin, Del. All six cadets initially denied the system existed but later recanted. They were then charged with violating the honor code, which says "a cadet does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do." The seniors argued that their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination was violated because, while they were told they did not have to incriminate themselves, they were asked directly if they had struck the freshmen. They either had to incriminate themselves or lie. The freshmen argued that they were caught between two VMI systems - the mentoring system and the honor code - and forced to choose between protecting their mentors and incriminating them. The result, they argued, is an "unconstitutionally vague" disciplinary system. "How the administration has bungled this and ruined the lives of these six kids is just appalling," one of the lawyers said.