Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 6, 1993                   TAG: 9305060269
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

TECH STUDENT FACING JAIL TIME, FINE IN FRATERNITY INCIDENT

But Scott Allen Burk was given 200 days - almost seven months - to serve in jail and $1,800 in fines after he was found guilty of six other misdemeanors, including providing alcohol to underage people, obstructing justice and trespassing.

Burk, 22, a Virginia Tech senior who will graduate Saturday, will begin serving the jail time Sunday evening.

He also was placed on probation and banned from the campus for four years and was ordered not to have any contact with any witnesses in the case.

Judge T.D. Frith warned Burk that if he went on campus after graduating Saturday or talked to any witnesses he would risk having to serve the 810 days - more than two years - that were suspended.

Burk pleaded guilty to all the charges except providing alcohol to the man involved in the hazing charge. Burk pleaded no contest to that.

Burk was charged with hazing after one of his fraternity's pledges was rushed to Montgomery Regional Hospital's intensive care unit in February to be treated for alcohol poisoning.

Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth attorney for Montgomery County, said the hazing charge was dropped because there was no evidence to link any hazing activity to Burk. There was evidence that five of 26 pledges were invited up to drink, but no admissible evidence there was any forced drinking.

"The only evidence . . . was that Scott Burk simply invited a certain number to drink with him and bring some money to help pay for liquor," Schwab said.

There was no admissible evidence that drinking or getting drunk would be required of the pledges before they could obtain Burk's signature recommending them as members, Schwab said.

Joe Painter, Burk's attorney, said he understood there were at least two pledges present who did not drink any alcohol.

Painter said he hoped Burk's case and other recent alcohol-related crackdowns by Blacksburg police sends a message "that there is a serious alcohol problem on campus . . . that hasn't been addressed yet."

Burk resigned from the fraternity after the incident. The pledge recovered and was released from the hospital a few days later, but Tech police charged Burk, a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, with one count of hazing and five counts of providing alcohol to persons under 21 years of age.

After Burk was charged, Dan Barrett, president of Pi Kappa Alpha, said the incident occurred without the knowledge of the fraternity.

One of the alcohol charges against Burk was dropped Wednesday because the person involved has left the area for the Army.

The trespassing charge was filed after Burk returned to the fraternity - located on campus - after receiving a letter from Tech authorities that he would be allowed on campus only to attend classes. An assault-and-battery charge entered after a confrontation with one of the witnesses in the case was amended to obstruction of justice Wednesday.

Last month, a Tech judicial board found Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity guilty of several hazing and alcohol-abuse violations and suspended it as a student organization for six years.

Pi Kappa Alpha rents a house on Tech's campus. The university will not renew the lease when it expires Sunday evening.