Thursday, October 8, 1998 CADETS TO FACE HAZING CHARGES COURT RULES THAT THE STATE'S ANTI-HAZING LAW IS VALID A defense lawyer had contended the 70-year-old law is unconstitutionally vague and did not adequately define hazing. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES A Rockbridge County Circuit Court judge has ruled that the state's "seldom used" anti-hazing law is constitutional, leaving three Virginia Military Institute cadets to face hazing charges in court. The men are charged with hazing George Wade Jr. of Henrico County, who was a freshman at VMI last year, by striking him on the buttocks with belts and coat hangers. In an opinion mailed to the attorneys this week, Judge George E. Honts III rejected all of Lexington lawyer Tommy Spencer's numerous grounds for striking down the law. "I'll have to confess the judge is smarter than I am," Spencer said. "He's figured out a way to make the statute constitutional." Honts' opinion clears the way to bring the men, Jonathan Gonzales of Mechanicsville, Thomas Michael Upshaw of Caroline County and Charles Travers "Buck" Clemons of Richmond, to trial soon. No date has been set. Spencer had argued, among other things, that the law is unconstitutionally vague by failing to adequately define hazing. The 70-year-old law says it is unlawful "to haze, or otherwise mistreat so as to cause bodily injury, any student at any school, college or university." Honts acknowledged the law is not "artfully" written, but notes that "there is no constitutional mandate that a statute be lucid." Honts said the common meaning of hazing - "to intimidate by physical punishment" - should be used to interpret the law. Honts found no help from case law that might have helped clarify the statute.The judge said he could find no record of a case being decided under the law, and called it "seldom used." That may be because under the common interpretation of the law, any criminal charge of hazing at a state school must begin with a finding of hazing by the school's head. At VMI, that would be Superintendent Josiah Bunting III. VMI investigated the claims Wade made after he left the college last winter and suspended the seniors. Bunting, however, declined to charge them with hazing. VMI maintains the penalties were "severe" within the VMI system. The Wade family complained that the law gives too much discretion to the college which would be embarrassed by the publicity and might open itself to a lawsuit. They pursued criminal charges until special prosecutor Mike Irvine of Buena Vista brought the charges to a grand jury, which indicted the three men. The family was happy with Honts' ruling. "We're really pleased," said Denise Wade, George's stepmother. "We were beginning to wonder whether our court system would side with them or side with what's right."