Search of Dartmouth Fraternity House Yields No Evidence

The Dartmouth via U-Wire
June 23, 2006
By Phil Salinger & Elise Waxenberg, The Dartmouth;

DartmouthHanover, N.H., police returned nearly all materials removed from Dartmouth College's Alpha Delta fraternity in a June 8 search of the physical plant without having found the sexually explicit video they were looking for.

The fraternity's alumni advisor John Engelman said that Hanover Police Captain Frank Moran returned all confiscated materials to him except for a computer that was still being examined, and that Moran told him that police found nothing related to the case.

"I suspect that they may have in the intervening week looked at the files on the computer and I'm absolutely confident that they will not find anything that's related to the investigation," Engelman said.

Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone would not comment last week on anything related to the ongoing investigation, which began in the fall of 2004, and would not verify whether any police officers spoke with Engelman about the outcome of the search. At that time, Giaccone said that the matter was still under investigation and he would not speculate on whether the two-year delay in obtaining a search warrant could have hurt the police's chances of finding what they were looking for.

Giaccone said that police are finished searching AD for the time being.

"Will there be more arrests? Probably," he said.Giaccone said that "key College officials" were informed that police were going to search AD beforehand, on the condition that they could not warn the fraternity.

The search, performed three days before Commencement, yielded two arrests for marijuana possession.

Engelman said that he did not know that the College was given a "heads up on this," but that he would not have expected the College to interfere with the legal process by telling AD about the search ahead of time.

"The College has been very good," Engelman said. "They can't take sides in this case but they've offered their very good offices to provide information or advice in dealing with things like the media.

"Last week Giaccone said that police do not have any immediate plans to release the documents related to the case, including the search warrant and affidavits, which are still sealed.

The investigation has attracted coverage by well over 100 media outlets across the country, which have focused on AD's reputation as the "Animal House" fraternity, having been home to the movie's writer, Chris Miller '64.

(C) 2006 The Dartmouth