VMI superintendent acted within the law

By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Even if it were to be proved that Superintendent Josiah Bunting III violated Virginia Military Institute's copyright policy in using state resources to help write two books, there doesn't appear to be any law under which he could be prosecuted.
"There is certainly no clear criminal violation," said Roger Groot, a criminal law expert at Washington and Lee Law School in Lexington.
Bunting's use of state telephones and Federal Express accounts, as well as state-paid VMI staff to write his books -- one of which earned him a $50,000 advance -- is being investigated by Lexington / Rockbridge County Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Saunders.
Virginia law allows each state college to set its own policy for use of state resources for research and publication, and VMI officials argue that what Bunting did is within its policy.
Groot said there's no Virginia statute that directly addresses using services and people for personal gain. The closest law available is the petit larceny statute, but larceny must involve tangible objects, Groot said, and it's hard to define long-distance charges and employee time as tangible.
There is a relatively new law that forbids theft of computer time, which is intangible, but Groot said it would be a stretch to try to apply that law in Bunting's case, "and almost a bad-faith stretch."
"I just don't think it's a crime."