Students End Fight for Reinstatement

The seven had sued in federal court, claiming their constitutional rights to due process were violated. All seven were expelled or suspended after the February 1999 incident. The trial was set for Wednesday in federal court. Instead, six of the seven withdrew their lawsuits Tuesday. The seventh withdrew her case last month.

NSU President Marie McDemmond said all seven former students remain expelled or suspended and that the university did not pay any settlement money. "The matter is closed. Our expulsion of the girls stands," McDemmond said Wednesday. "There was really no settlement."

Attorneys for the former students either could not be reached Wednesday or declined to comment. But an attorney for the hazing victim, Janelle Saulter, said she is planning to sue the sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. She does not blame the university or its administrators. "I don't think the school did anything wrong," said the attorney, John L. Watts. "As soon as they found out about it, they jumped on it."

In court papers, McDemmond condemmed the hazing as "barbaric" and "sadistic and inhumane." She expelled nine students, suspended four others and suspended the sorority for three years after the incident.

During the hazing, Saulter was forced to do hundreds of deep knee bends and other exercises, accompanied by occasional taunts, insults, and hitting, according to her statement to NSU officials. After the hazing, Saulter was hospitalized for eight days, including two days in intensive care. She suffered damage to her kidneys and leg muscles.

Today, Saulter is much better, her lawyer said. "She's recovered from her injuries and she's still in school," Watts said.

Saulter declined to comment Wednesday, but she described the hazing in detail in court papers. It happened Feb. 8 in a member's home in Virginia Beach. According to Saulter's account, here's what happened:

At first, Saulter was told to do an exercise called DD4s. "I went down on one knee and alternated them to come back up on the other knee while holding my arms straight up in the air," she wrote. Several times, Saulter asked if she could stop, but was refused. As she grew tired, she began using her hands to get up, and sorority members screamed at her and belittled her. "When I slowed down to rest and to breathe, I was yelled at and pushed and told to get up," she wrote. "They constantly yelled at me, saying I was weak, that I would never be a Delta acting that way, and that I had to continue or else."

Then Saulter was ordered to put her head against the wall and stand on her tiptoes. "I guess I was not as far up on the tips of my toes as the Deltas wanted because one of them came up to me...and knocked my knees in," she wrote. "Because my legs were so tired, I fell straight to the floor. I was then yelled at and hit by (a member) for mistakenly falling on her."

As the night wore on, Saulter was told to do more knee and arm exercises. "The skin broke on my knees and they began to bleed. The next day when I woke, I saw puss and blood oozing out," she wrote. Three days later, legs aching so bad she could barely walk, Saulter noticed her urine was dark brown. Doctors at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital found severe kidney and leg muscle damage. She had trouble breathing and was not aware of what was going on. She was placed in intensive care.

Upon learning of the hazing, NSU officials began an investigation.

On April 19, an administrative hearing was held against 16 sorority members. The hearing officer, Joshua F. Edwards Sr., special assistant to the vice president for student affairs, found 13 members guilty of hazing.

Under state law, a university president must expel any student guilty of "hazing or mistreating" another student and causing physical harm. On April 29, McDemmond upheld most of Edwards' findings. She found nine sorority members...Tomeka R. Givens, LaTonya Holmes, Jacqueline Hodge, Carin A. Lightner, Chantee Singleton, Zandra Johnson, Cassandra Hopson, Angela Darrington and LaShonda Joyner...guilty and expelled them immediately.

McDemmond found that four other sorority members...Chalette Sapp-Mobley, Shantee Cuffee, Jacqueline Patillo and Rhonda Rush...were not present at Saulter's hazing but had engaged in hazing on previous occasions that did not result in physical harm. They were suspended for one year.

The next day, some of those students sued McDemmond in Norfolk Circuit Court. Eventually, seven of the suspended students...Givens, Holmes, Hodge, Singleton, Johnson, Sapp-Mobley and Lightner...sued. One judge blocked the expulsions, then another reinstated them. Finally, the cases were removed to federal court and eventually dropped.