Norfolk-DSTheta hazing suit settled

[hoosier]

Woman settles hazing lawsuit against former NSU sorority
By LOU MISSELHORN, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 24, 2002

NORFOLK -- A woman has settled her lawsuit against a former Norfolk State University sorority and some members for what she described in court records as hazing incidents that left her hospitalized in 1999.

Terms and conditions of the settlement were not released.

Janelle Y. Saulter was seeking $500,000 in the lawsuit, filed in February 2001. The suit named Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., operating locally as The Epsilon Theta Chapter.

In court records filed Oct. 10, Saulter said she was assaulted, intimidated, threatened and hospitalized after a Feb. 8, 1999, incident.

The sorority's national headquarters had barred the local chapter from taking new members after an investigation into prior allegations of hazing, records show.


Saulter was hospitalized for eight days, including two in intensive care with damage to her kidneys and leg muscles.

The original lawsuit named 12 sorority members as defendants. Court documents earlier this month named only two members: Carin Lightner, then-president of the NSU chapter, and LaTonya Holmes, the chapter's former first vice-president.

NSU expelled Holmes and Lightner, along with seven other sorority members, in connection with hazing activities.

The sorority's attorney, Curtis Hairston, confirmed that the organization and the two women were defendants in the case. Attorneys for Holmes and Lightner could not be reached for comment.