Bones Gate and Zeta Psi fraternities both pled not guilty at their arraignments last Wednesday to felony charges of serving alcohol to minors, according to Grafton County Superior Court documents.
Bones Gate and Zete were charged with serving beer to a '99 male and a '00 female, respectively, adding to the recent string of indictments brought against fraternities at the College.
Since February, four Dartmouth fraternities have been indicted on felony charges of serving to underaged students. Besides Bones Gate and Zete, Alpha Delta fraternity was indicted on Feb. 13 and Alpha Chi Alpha was indicted on Feb. 18
Alpha Chi and AD also pled not-guilty to the charges in their indictments.
Hanover Police Captain Chris O'Connor said the trials of Zete and Bones Gate will take place during the weeks of Sept. 8 and 15, thought the exact dates are not yet set.
Alpha Chi and AD will stand trial in July, according to Katherine Moore, the prosecuting attorney for the county in the case against Alpha Chi.
Mark Larsen, the attorney for both Bones Gate and AD, said the fraternities' not-guilty pleas are typical in such cases.
"It's close to unheard of to enter a plea other than not guilty" for felony charges, Larsen said.
Moore agreed that pleading not guilty is common practice.
"Pleading not guilty at an arraignment is typical," especially in Superior Court cases when past involvement might be an issue, she said.
The apparent escalation in the frequency of underage drinking indictments is not indicative of an increased effort on the part of law enforcement officers, Hanover Police Captain Chris O'Connor said.
"Really this type of incident is not commonplace, but it's not based on any lengthy investigation by the police," he said.
The fraternities are being charged as organizations, according to Larsen. He said no one was present at either arraignment, since the fraternities filed their not-guilty pleas via arraignment waiver forms.
The presidents of Bones Gate and AD had to sign personal recognizance bonds requiring them to stand trial and charging them $5000, Larsen said.
Larsen said the not guilty pleas will give the fraternities' lawyers and the prosecuting attorneys involved time to consider all issues involved in the case, including liability, evidence, proof and the possibility of reaching an agreement.
"It does seem like there's been a number of these recently," but it is probably just a coincidence, Larsen said of the indictments.
O'Connor said in most such incidents, Hanover Police encounters a "highly intoxicated individual" and tries to address how and where the individual became intoxicated. Through investigation, he said, the police determine where the individual was served alcohol.
"We can't turn our heads," he said. "It wouldn't be fair to indict one fraternity and not another" for such violations.
In many cases, the individual would normally be dealt with by College Safety and Security but is turned over to the authority of the Hanover Police after being non-cooperative or if they are injured, he said.
For example, a student may resist going to Dick's House, because they "don't want to explain a $400 bill from Dick's House to their parents," O'Connor said.
Alcohol violations are an "ongoing issue between the College, the Hanover Police and the fraternity houses," he said.
Ben Wright '98, the president of Bones Gate, declined to comment on last week's arraignment. Tom Millett '98, Zete's president, could not be reached for comment last night.
