Double secret probation

The fraternity that was the basis for National Lampoon's Animal House is under investigation and it appears that arrests are on the way:

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) Police said Friday they expect to make arrests based on a two-year investigation of a Dartmouth College fraternity that helped inspire the raunchy 1978 movie, ``National Lampoon's Animal House.''

Court documents regarding Thursday's search were sealed, however, and authorities said little about their investigation of the Alpha Delta house just off Dartmouth's idyllic green.

Alpha Delta members turned a reporter away at the door Friday, but some members told Dartmouth junior Joe Kutney the raid took them by surprise and was the first they knew they were being investigated.

Kutney, a member of the Tri-Kap fraternity, said Alpha Delta can be ``a pretty crazy house'' whose members are proud of their party reputation. He added that Alpha Delta isn't the only Dartmouth fraternity with such a reputation.

Police removed 10 crates, two bags, a videotape and a computer during the raid.

George Ostler, lawyer for the fraternity members, wouldn't comment except to call the search a ``major interruption.''

Showing that life seems to imitate art sometimes, the raid came as parents began arriving on the Ivy League campus for graduation Sunday.

``Animal House'' portrayed fraternity debauchery at the fictional ``Delta House,'' whose members repeatedly thwart and embarrass the ``Faber College'' officials determined to banish them whatever the cost.

``Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the (expletive deleted) Peace Corps,'' frat brother Bluto, played by John Belushi, exclaims at one point.

One of the writers, Chris Miller, was a 1964 Dartmouth graduate and a member of Alpha Delta fraternity.

In 2000, Dartmouth launched an initiative to curb the Greek- and alcohol-centered social scene, including calling for the removal of bars and taps from fraternity and sorority houses and the creation of a new residential living system.

Last year, the Theta Delta Chi fraternity was indicted on charges it served alcohol to minors. And in 2001, the school banned the Zeta Psi fraternity for printing newsletters that detailed the sexual exploits of its members.

College spokesman Roland Adams said the school does not release disciplinary records for Dartmouth's 24 single-sex fraternities and sororities or the three co-ed organizations. More than a third of the school's 4,100 undergraduates are members of single-sex fraternities and sororities.

Hanover Police Chief Nick Giaccone said one 19-year-old student was arrested at the house on a drug charge Thursday, but the arrest was not related to the investigation. The same was true of a possible second drug arrest soon, he said Friday.

Giaccone said the investigation began in October 2004 following an incident at the fraternity, which is owned by a group of its alumni called the Dartmouth Corporation of Alpha Delta.

Dartmouth spokesman William Walker said Dartmouth is cooperating with the investigation as far as the law permits.

"I hate those guys."